Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times journalist and author of the influential globalization treatise “The World Is Flat: A Brief History of The Twenty-first Century,” wrote in 2004, “When I was growing up, my parents used to say to me: ‘Finish your dinner — people in China are starving.’ I, by contrast, find myself wanting to say to my daughters: ‘Finish your homework — people in China … are starving for your job.’” Unfortunately, Friedman was probably more literally right than he knew. The Chinese government is complicit (along with its American corporate partners) in the abuse of unethical work practices for economic gain.
As NPR reported earlier this year, “though the U.S. maintains a list of goods made by forced labor in China, including electronics, shoes and clothes, these products still find their way into the U.S. — and American homes.” NPR reported that the People’s Republic of China pairs labor camp output with that of legitimate “sister” factories to disguise the nature of the products produced. This approach is not always successful. CNN reported in June that a retail shopper in Ireland discovered a note in an article of clothing from a prison camp laborer, mirroring a similar story of a U.S. shopper finding such a note in a Halloween toy in 2011.
President Clinton’s bipartisan push to engage China in open trade and approve the country’s membership in the World Trade Organization were initially widely opposed by labor rights groups; the House of Representatives heard detailed descriptions of the country’s use of slave labor production in 1994 and 1997. It seems that American hope for the democratization of China through a sort of economic glasnost has done little to soften the government responsible for Tibetan genocide and the 1989 Tiananmen massacre. The continued, violent persecution of the Falun Gong should eradicate all faith in the PRC’s 2013 claim to have ended such human rights abuses at its labor camps.
Ignoring China’s currency manipulation and the resulting American trade deficit, these human rights abuses should be reason enough for U.S. consumers to moderate their consumption of Chinese products and for U.S. politicians to get tough on international trade regulations. Artificially low prices achieved at the expense of slave labor do not represent a success of globalization. American jobs outsourced overseas to forced laborers are not a symptom of fair competition. It is blatantly immoral for American companies to profit from a lack of enforced workplace safety standards, child labor laws, minimum wage requirements and environmental regulations.
Due to the PRC’s purchase of the bulk of “The War on Terror” debt and the instantaneous and interconnected nature of the modern economy, it’s unreasonable to expect that the U.S. would be able to surgically extricate itself from its immoral ties to China’s forced labor market. However, it should be apparent that more stringent controls are needed on international trade; U.S. politicians should be taken to task on this issue. Americans can and should step up to their responsibility to take greater care as consumers and vet the commercial vendors they purchase from. Despite the difficulty of altering a rabid “consumer culture,” this is a moral imperative.
A country supposedly committed to the ideals of free exchange and human dignity cannot remain so and support its economy with goods manufactured by slaves.