And, they say, the continued push into the largely untapped Chinese marketplace will ultimately cost American workers their jobs. The government has barred many forms of social research and often creates phony impressions for outsiders during factory visits, human rights advocates say. Official estimates of jobless Chinese run as high as 15 million in the cities and 130 million in the countryside. According to the 1999 report of the human rights group Amnesty International, more than 200,000 people were detained without charges in re-education camps in China in 1998. And at least 2,000 people were jailed as political prisoners.
Horror stories abound.
Workers being fired or imprisoned for attempting to organize a union. Jail terms for complaining about working conditions. Migrant workers stuffed 10 deep into small rooms that pass for living quarters. Wages that bottom out at pennies a day. You give a couple hundred dollars a month to the local security force and you can do anything,'' said Kernaghan.