China’s entry into the World Trade Organization in late 2001 transformed the country into a magnet for foreign investors seeking low wages and lower import barriers. In 2004, China’s economic growth rate was nearly 10 percent. Two years later, the total U.S. trade with China was $231.4 billion, nearly 85 percent of which consisted of exported goods from China. As multinational corporations and the new Chinese bourgeoisie reap the profits of China’s trade relations, millions of workers have paid the price.

China is not the only country that can be accused of egregious human rights violations. Such violations take place both in the United States and in other nations around the world. However, in recent years, a rising demand for social reform, dovetailing with China’s economic changes, has been countered by particularly stringent controls by government authorities. For instance, as access to the Internet increases worldwide, resulting in more widespread access to information and dialogue, China has aggressively limited its citizens from discussing politically sensitive issues online, detaining and sometimes even sentencing them to indefinite prison terms.

As China prepares to host the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, repressions on progressive reforms have increased even as the government struggles to project a positive public image. The lack of transparency within China’s police and security forces enable the country to wield control over journalists, activists, writers, academics, human rights defenders, critics and protesters. Corruption within the legal system makes it even more difficult for those accused to find justice and redress.

Labor Rights and the Global Economy

As foreign investments and freer trade enabled China’s new booming economy, hundreds of millions of migrant workers have moved to rapidly growing cities from the country’s impoverished countryside in order to find work, mainly in factories that provide goods for export. This vulnerable segment of the population is subject to many human and labor rights abuses, despite claims of labor reforms. Multinational corporations such as Wal-Mart claim to perform inspections of labor conditions, but such inspections are often superficial and rife with corruption.

As seen in CHINA BLUE, workers are often required to pay for residence permits and hand over their first paychecks as a so-called deposit. They are forbidden to strike and can be fired if they get sick. Factory workers often work in hazardous conditions in environments rife with corruption, with little to no protection or recourse. Many are children under the age of 15. Workers lack unemployment compensation, health insurance and pensions. National Chinese labor laws set a minimum wage equivalent to about 31 cents an hour, but factory owners usually ignore these laws, withholding overtime and paying workers less than half of this amount. In the factory featured in CHINA BLUE, minimum wage is 48 U.S. cents an hour.

Because political dissent can be grounds for imprisonment, Chinese workers cannot easily form a labor movement to fight for better working conditions. Yet even with such limitations on labor rights in China, workers persist in protesting illegal wage deductions, dangerous working conditions and other employer violations.

In 2006, Wal-Mart allowed unionization within its Chinese stores after workers sparked a grassroots labor organization. True reform, however, will not be possible until the Chinese government-controlled All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU)—the only trade union allowed in the country—is truly willing to advocate for the rights of workers, even at the expense of foreign trade monies. Independent auditors and unannounced inspections of factories would also create a more truthful monitoring of labor environments. Because factories offering higher wages and fewer hours can simply not compete in today’s economy, foreign investors must also be willing to pay higher prices for goods in order to boost conditions for Chinese workers.

Learn about the business behind the blue jeans >>

Read the Filmmaker Q&A >>