(Qilai Shen/Bloomberg)

Foxconn workers who make the iPhone and other hi-tech products have been in a great number of headlines over the past few years without eliciting change. But when fights between workers and management broke out and paralyzed assembly lines in Zhengzhou last year, Chinese authorities started looking for solutions to the constant disputes. According to the Financial Times:

 “[The government is] likely worried about industrial unrest. It’s clear they want to get workers [away from protesting in] the courtyard and to the negotiating table,” says Auret van Heerden, chief executive of the Fair Labor Association, the US-based group working with Apple and assessing working conditions at Foxconn. “It appears the Chinese government is more and more concerned that [official] unions have been asleep at the switch.”

One idea now being floated is to allow Foxconn workers democratically elect their own union leaders. The FT article continues:

Foxconn is paving the way for the first-ever competitive union elections among its 1.2m workers, alongside the Chinese government’s push for collective bargaining and wider worker representation.

Obviously this is unusual in China, which already has an official nationwide labor union. But the All-China Federation of Trade Union is a top-down organization run by the government without the independence needed to be effective. According to NPR:

Labor unions technically do exist in Chinese factories, but they’re typically controlled by management and the government. So a union run by democratic vote of the workers would be a huge shift.

Why would the Chinese government be behind such a surprising move? FT:

The trigger was a strike at Honda’s plants in southern China in the summer of 2010 that highlighted the problem of having a union allied with management. During the strike, young workers jeered at and scuffled with ACFTU leaders, saying they had never seen them before. Since then, local governments in southern China have been pushing companies to hold genuine union elections. The Shenzhen municipal government was first in early 2012, followed last month [January] by Guangzhou.

Foxconn wouldn’t be the first company in Shenzhen to elect their own leaders.

At Ohms Electronics (Shenzhen), a small affiliate of Panasonic, workers directly elected their union leadership for the first time last May. “Their vote deserved being called democratic, but that’s really the only example we know of,” says Cheng Yiyi from Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior, a Hong Kong-based labor rights group.

These are extraordinary developments in a country without a democratic tradition, so progress will likely be uneven and gradual, if not altogether slow.

People involved in the preparations say that simply educating staff about how the vote will work, what their rights are and what the responsibilities of the resulting union committees are will be a huge challenge. Reaching all its employees may take longer than the 13 months the average production worker stays at the company.

Nevertheless, the hope is that the restless workers at Foxconn are beginning to make their voices heard and are leveraging their position as makers of the world’s most popular product into real social change.

China wary amid push for workers’ union poll (Financial Times)

Five medical students were found dead Monday in an apartment they shared in Beijing’s Choayang District, according to Xinhua.

Arriving at the rented house in Chaoyang District at around 8:30 am, emergency doctors found the five men, from Harbin Medical University in northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, had all stopped breathing and had no pulse, police said.

Signs point to carbon monoxide poison, though authorities have yet to confirm the exact cause of death. A sixth roommate wasn’t home when the tragedy happened. They were all interns at the China-Japan Friendship Hospital.

If carbon monoxide is indeed confirmed as the cause, it would be the second such tragedy in a week, after 12 miners were poisoned in Heilongjiang province last Tuesday. (Incidentally, the same province where the medical interns were from.) Xinhua again:

Zhang [Fuguang, deputy head of the county government,] said an initial investigation showed that a dense buildup of carbon monoxide in the mine was caused by self-igniting coal in an old mine located adjacent to the Yongsheng mine.

Both incidents, of coures, come on the heels of the heartbreaking story in November of five street children in Bijie, Guizhou province who succumbed to carbon monoxide while huddling together in a dumpster and burning coals to keep warm. CO is, tragically, living up to its name as the silent killer.

It’s been a season of scandal for Yum Brands Inc., parent of KFC, which has been forced to apologize in response to a government investigation that found it was using pumped up and drugged out chicken from a local supplier. This has led to ticked off customers, decreasing sales and now a fallen stock price. From Reuters:

Yum shares fell 5.6 percent in after-hours trading, as Wall Street analysts and investors digested the disappointing news from the company that is widely seen as a model for how to do business in the complex Chinese market.

“This is going to take all the experts they have in public relations to stem the tide. I don’t think anyone saw this coming,” Edward Jones analyst Jack Russo said.

Yum reported a 6 percent drop in fourth-quarter sales at established restaurants in China due to “adverse publicity” regarding chemical residue found in some of its chicken supply.

One would think an international conglomerate like Yum would have the know-how to skillfully handle such a PR nightmare, especially in a country where food safety problems are an everyday concern.

Maybe not. Via Forbes:

At YUM’s analyst day on December 6, 2012, we asked CEO David C. Novak what his “defense” was to media exposes that one of KFC China’s suppliers had pumped its chicken full of chemicals to expedite their growth. The story prompted a furious social media reaction. His answer was “No worries. It will blow over.” When asked how, he shrugged: “It always has.”

This time it hasn’t blown over, and KFC is paying the price. As Bloomberg noted last month:

KFC sales in China in the last two weeks of December had a “significant impact” from “adverse publicity associated with a government review of China poultry supply,” the company said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Monday. China same-store sales fell 6 percent in the fourth quarter, compared with a previous estimate for a decline of 4 percent, according to the filing.

It wasn’t long ago that KFC was being touted as one of the relatively few foreign companies that had figured out the Chinese market.

When I first heard about this little trouble, I admit I wanted to side with KFC. At least the company is subject to some regulations, which are more stringent because it’s a foreign company. Compared to gutter oil, KFC still looks pretty good.

But after some further thought (and a chat with my girlfriend), I’ve concluded that Yum actually deserves every bit of grief it’s getting. As a foreign company, KFC is automatically held in greater esteem by Chinese consumers, who trust its safety procedures. And it’s this trust that allows KFC to get away with charging higher prices.

In other words, a kind of social contract is in place where people will happily hand over more money in exchange for the guarantee of greater quality and safety. If Chinese regulators seemingly hold KFC to a higher double standard, good.

And when it messes up, it hurts all of us.

Sales are dropping. Stock is tanking. It’s gonna take a bit more than simply waiting for this situation to “blow over.” Maybe a PR campaign is in order? Remember KFC’s “handsome delivery boy” service reported a year ago? Now’s the time for it.

Shenzhen prides itself on being one of China’s most “civilized” cities. Now it’s drafting legislation to back it up.

On March 1, Shenzhen will become the first Chinese city to enforce civil behavior by law. According to Shenzhen Daily:

Shenzhen’s Civilized Behavior Promotion Law lists 10 public behaviors that are deemed uncivilized and lead to fines for violators. The cited behaviors included spitting in public, smoking in a non-smoking place, failing to clean up pet’s excrement in public, damaging public sanitation facilities and more.

The law is the result of a year’s worth of public debate last year. Both locals and expats were asked to list the most uncivilized behaviors prevalent in the city along with suggested punishments.

Originally, fines for violators were to range from 200 yuan for spitting and littering to 500 yuan for smoking in non-smoking areas to 10,000 yuan for vandalism of public facilities. However, the final draft is likely to leave out specific numbers to allow for more situation-based enforcement. Violators will also have the option to apply for community service to offset up to half of their fines.

The public generally supports the law, but raised questions about it. Some, like office worker Yang Chao, thinks the law lacks the specifics to be effective. As quoted in SZ Daily: “How can you fine passengers for littering on a bus? If someone vomits on a bus because of carsickness, should he or she be fined too?”

Meanwhile, expat Kevin Smith doesn’t think the law goes far enough. “It’s a good law, but something is missing, I regularly see parents or grandparents let their children pee on the floor, this should be added to the list,” he told SZ Daily.

But perhaps the toughest challenge the city will face is enforcement, which will be carried out by the notorious chengguan. As China Daily reported last July:

Wang Ming, an employee at an export and import company, said he welcomed the new measures but was concerned about how the laws will be enforced.

“I hate spitting very much, but I’m afraid if such behaviors get fined the urban management officers will have too much power, and I’m afraid the power will be misused,” he said.

We wonder why he feels that way.

Civility law to take effect March 1 (Shenzhen Daily)

China’s multi-decade quest for rapid development has by all measures been a stunning success. However, this has not come without a few unintended consequences.

The physical conditioning – or lack thereof – of 90s-generation youth has been called a “crisis.” Sun Yunxiao, author and deputy director of the China Youth and Research Center in Beijing, told AP, “Our economic power has grown while our people’s physiques have not only failed to improve, but have deteriorated. That’s unacceptable. This is something that worries the nation.”

Last year, two college students died during university-mandated fitness runs, leading other schools to scale back or cancel athletics events during annual meets. And the education ministry reports that male university students run the 1,000-meter race 14 to 15 seconds slower than their peers from a decade earlier. Women ran their 800-meter race 12 seconds slower. The results of other tests show similar declines. Not surprisingly, one area of growth has been in body weight – student obesity rates are climbing.

Clearly the pressure cooker that is the Chinese education system just does not leave much room for physical fitness.

Lou Linjun, a former physical education teacher in Hangzhou in eastern China, said the grueling schoolwork has driven students out of the exercise yards. “It’s become a norm that schoolyards are empty in the afternoon at many of the city’s key high schools,” said Lou, who is now an assistant principal.

“Students are less likely to be willing to endure hardship and do not like to run anymore.”

But it is not only educators who are taking notice. Some are calling this trend – especially among the boys – a threat to China’s future. Check out what Major General Luo Yuan said in Global Times (quoted by AP again):

“Femininity is on the rise, and masculinity is on the decline,” Yuan thundered. “With such a lack of character and determination and such physical weakness, how can they shoulder the heavy responsibility?”

Perhaps the army is right to worry. Sun Yunxiao’s research has found that not only are young Chinese boys between the ages of 7 and 17 getting physically weaker, they are also 2.54 centimeters shorter than their Japanese counterparts.

This has all produced some interesting paradoxes for modern China: a nation forged on a history of collective sacrifice and the often superhuman physical exertions of its people now has reason to fear it is producing youngsters who can’t pull their weight.

Which brings us to another paradox: how is China winning all those gold medals? AP again:

“We have this strange phenomenon. Outside, we are showing off muscles, but at home we are panting,” popular blogger Li Chengpeng wrote last summer, when China’s Olympic athletes in London raked in 38 gold medals — second only to the United States.

“Outside, the red flags are flying. At home, the red lights are going up,” Li wrote.

A topic for another time, perhaps.

China’s young in crisis of declining fitness (AP)

Traditional ideas of what animals should be eaten are under pressure in southern China, a region where it’s often said anything that walks, flies or swims is fit for the dinner table.

In Hong Kong, the controversy centers on shark fin soup, which has long been one of the city’s most popular dishes, especially among the city’s image-conscious elite who serve it at banquets and weddings as a conspicuous symbol of status and wealth.

In times past shark traders in Hong Kong felt free to set fins on the street to dry in the sun. But thanks to videos like this, environmental activists are beginning to convince ordinary citizens to object. The killing of sharks is especially cruel, they say – the fins are cut off and the animal is tossed back into the water; unable to swim, it slowly drowns – and many countries have already banned the practice.

But resistance to change can be fierce. Hong Kong is the world’s epicenter of the shark trade, accounting for an estimated 50-80% of the 73 million sharks killed for food per year. Thanks to China’s economic boom, the trade is estimated to be growing at 5% per year.

The extra scrutiny has simply pushed the trade above ground, specifically to the rooftops where the fins can prepped for sale without the disapproving eyes of Hong Kong’s public or nosy foreign tourists.

In addition, many see no good reason to stop eating shark. For them, the issue is much bigger than a simple bowl of soup. They see it as an assault by foreign thinking on traditional Chinese culture. Via a Forbes article from earlier this year:

Confronted with a rising tide of bans and boycotts, the outfits that sell shark fin are fighting back – just this week, with a high-profile onslaught of ads in the industry’s epicenter that says sharks aren’t endangered, and charges that Western cultural supremacy lies behind the global campaign to shun this unlikely delicacy.

Much like Japan’s sometimes puzzling determination to keep hunting whales, some Chinese feel it’s their nationalistic duty to eat whatever they want. And if foreigners can eat chickens and cows in massive numbers, why can’t Asians eat the animals they like?

Similar tensions are also evident in the massive city directly adjacent to Hong Kong.

Many of the new residents of Shenzhen are migrant workers who, away from their families, have taken dogs as companions to cure their loneliness. Add to that a rapidly growing middle class who view their expensive pure breed retriever, labrador or poodle the same way some Hong Kongers see eating shark – as a highly visible symbol of status and wealth — and what you end up with is a city where people who love dogs as pets mix with people who love them more for supper.

These paradigms sometimes clash: recently a mini-controversy erupted when Shenzhen University decided to serve a dog hot pot dish in one of the school canteens. In years past, such a move wouldn’t have attracted much attention, but this time many students objected and sent letters of protest directly to the president of the school. Without resistance the university abandoned the idea.

Letter of protest over dog hot pot

However, this anecdote doesn’t mean dog isn’t widely available in other parts of Shenzhen. And it’s unlikely that such traditional foods will disappear from South China dinner tables anytime soon.

For the meantime, environmentalists and pet lovers will just have to take solace in this, via AP:

“With the middle class becoming more affluent, the demand is definitely growing” in mainland China, [environmental campaigner Gary] Stokes said. “But in Hong Kong it’s actually decreasing. I think that in Hong Kong people are starting to realize that it’s not that cool.”

Traditions might die hard, but at least perceptions can — and do — change.

Japan scrambled F-15s to intercept a Chinese plane headed for the disputed island on Saturday, according to press releases from Japan’s foreign ministry over the weekend. The Y-12 propeller plane, operated by China’s State Oceanic Administration, came within 112 nautical miles of the island before turning back east and finally departing the area to the north.

It was the second time within a month that Japan has dispatched fighters to meet approaching Chinese planes. On December 13, Japan sent eight F-15s after its Coast Guard spotted a Chinese marine surveillance plane in the area.

At that time Japan’s foreign ministry called that flight “a dangerous act that escalates the situation.” This time, new Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose return to power last month worried some Sino-Japanese watchers, vowed to defend what he calls “Japan’s territorial waters,” according to Bloomberg.

Needless to say, China disagrees with this sentiment and sees the air patrols not as provocative, but a routine procedure vital to protecting Chinese sovereignty. And China doesn’t particularly appreciate Japan scrambling jets, which technically encroach into China’s territorial waters.

China vows to continue regular flights over the islands to make sure Japan doesn’t get any ideas. “The recent patrols are sending messages that the Japanese should face up to reality,” Wang Xingsheng, professor of Japanese studies at Peking University, said last month, as quoted in China Daily.

With neither side backing down, expect more agitation over the strategic islands, said to be rich in oil, gas and fisheries. And rock.

Japan Alerts Jets After China Plane Nears Isles, Yomiuri Says (Bloomberg)

A near-riot broke out at Changshui International Airport in Kunming last Thursday, as wont to happen in Chinese airports now and then. Pictures surfaced of passengers screaming at airline staff, beating up ground crew, climbing over check-in counters, commandeering the airport’s broadcast system and generally taking their anger out on any computers or ticket machines they could get their hands on.

A sudden thick fog caused more than 400 flights to be cancelled, stranding nearly 10,000 passengers. The cancellations began at about noon and things began to get tense when the airport failed to provide any updated flight information – leaving people with no idea about their scheduled departures all day.

The airport also failed to provide hot water or even sufficient heat to the restless passengers already suffering through one of China’s coldest winter storms on record. There are no nearby hotels, so comfort was hard to find. And when passengers complained about the low temperatures in the airport they were told the heating system was “not fully operational.” According to Global Times:

A journalist from the Kunming-based newspaper Yunnan Daily, who declined to be named, confirmed to the Global Times that the airport, which went into operation just six months ago, was short of ground crew and not equipped with enough support facilities.

“There is no large hotel close to the airport so stranded passengers are sent back downtown, 30 kilometers away. When passengers complained about the low temperature inside the airport, they were told that the heating system was not fully operational.”

By Thursday evening, the long delays, cold temperatures, and hours without being told the status of their flights had sent the crowd into a frenzy, which was not quelled until police were called in to restore order.

There were no reports of serious injuries or arrests. Flights resumed Friday but the backlog continued well into the weekend.

Stranded by fog, passengers turn violent (Global Times) (Image via Shanghaiist)