Chinese factories have to adjust to new labor demands

• Source: Global Times
• [22:56 February 24 2010]
• Comments

If we keep depending on cheap labor to boost the economy, even if our economy can pick up, the development will still be unbalanced and unsustainable. And, if the government drives economic growth at the cost of social welfare, it will lead to a supposedly wealthy nation, but a poor population.

China's urbanization should not only seek to expand the cities, but also to transform farmers into city residents, and give them equal rights of housing, employment, medical care and so on. Only in this way can they live with confidence in cities.

In order to lessen the worsening of the dearth of workers, many factories in the Pearl River Delta area and the Yangtze River Delta area are immediately claiming to have raised salaries. Local governments are also taking measures to help companies hire workers. But the effect of those measures is far from satisfactory.

As for those factories that used to be behind "Made in China," they are facing the choice of "change or close." Only when they make the right choice can China's urbanization and development really be realized.

The author is a Beijing-based journalist. xiaokailin@sina.com