Word: chen
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...SHANG CHEN...
Karl Marx once wrote that "the worker becomes an ever-cheaper commodity the more commodities he creates." His observation was published 160 years ago, but it's an accurate commentary on the plight of millions of Chinese like Chen Suo, a 16-year-old assembly-line worker at shoe manufacturer Stella International located in the southern city of Dongguan in Guangdong province. Chen returned to her home in Shaanxi province in disgrace earlier this month after spending eight months in jail for participating in a labor protest that turned violent. "I wasn't thinking of breaking things or blowing things...
...Emboldened though they may be, jail remains a very real possibility for agitators. Yet even those who have been convicted of inciting unrest are receiving help from an unlikely quarter: factory managers and their overseas clients. After the riot at Stella's Dongguan factory, 10 workers including Chen, the migrant worker from Shaanxi, were sentenced by a Dongguan court to serve up to three-and-a-half years in prison for destroying factory property. But Stella's managers (who say they were trying to address workers' complaints when the strike erupted), aided by foreign shoe companies and overseas NGOs, petitioned...
...With Lunar New Year approaching, tens of millions of the country's migrant workers will soon attempt to collect unpaid wages before heading home for the holiday. More clashes with employers are possible. Meanwhile, Chen is back home, trying to shrug off stares from neighbors who look down on her because of her stint behind bars. "To them it's like I went to prison for killing somebody," she says, "but it was just a strike." All part of the daily grind...
...billion in China, and one million Taiwanese now live on the mainland. Many of them have urged their government to improve relations with China. In 2003, Taipei and Beijing had a similar agreement for one-stop charter flights during the Lunar New Year. (In 2004, during Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian's reelection bid, Beijing refused to permit the charters.) But unlike 2003, when the charters were limited to Taiwan airlines, this year mainland carriers will be allowed to land in Taiwan for the first time. "This is a historic moment," says Eric Teng, a Shanghai-based businessman from Taiwan...