Battle for China's Past : Mao and the Cultural Revolution

THE BATTLE OF CHINA’ S HISTORY
The following examples show how the profits are shared when
foreign firms operate in China. A Barbie doll may sell in the US market
at a retail price of US$10, but its FOB price from China is only US$2, of
which US$1 is for management and transportation costs. Of the other
US$1 spent in China, 65 cents are spent on materials. Only 35 cents are
left for the Chinese workers to share. Similarly, Han Yanming (2004)
notes that a factory in Suzhou produces 20 million computer mouses a
year for Logitech International SA to sell to the US market for US$40
apiece. Logitech takes US$8, distributors and retailers take US$15, and a
further US$14 is paid for the materials and parts. The Chinese side gets
only US$3, which includes the cost of labour, electricity, transportation
and so on.
Another example of how the transnational capitalist chain exploits
Chinese labour is a case study reported by China Labor Watch. A Puma
shoe factory run by a Taiwan businessman employs about 30,000 workers
in Guangdong; the retail price of a pair of its shoes in the United
States ranges from US$65 to US$110. The average Chinese worker gets
paid US$1.09 per pair, while Puma spends US$6.78 per pair on advertising.
The retail value of the shoes made by a worker in one week equals
all the money paid to him or her for a whole year. The average hourly
wage rate paid to a Chinese worker is 31 US cents, while the profit the
company makes from each Chinese worker is US$12.24 per hour. The
workers regularly have to work from 7.30am to 9.00pm, but sometimes
have to work overtime until 12pm with no increase in the hourly rate.
Sometimes they do not even get paid at all for overtime. They have a
one-hour break for lunch and an hour and a half for dinner. They sleep
in the factory compound, with twelve people in one room and one bathroom
for 100 people to share. They are not allowed to talk at work and
cannot leave the factory compound without permission. The penalty for
arriving five minutes late at work is the deduction of three hours’ pay.
There are no regulations on workplace health and safety conditions in
the factory (China Labor Watch 2004).
Joint ventures not only make profits but also shift production relations
in China. In an in-depth study of two key model joint ventures,
Chin (2003) finds that there has been a significant shift to capitalist
social relations of production in China’s joint venture sector. The study
suggests that China’s foreign-invested sectors operate according to the
logic of capitalist accumulation, or ‘accumulation by dispossession’
coined by David Harvey, and that a hegemonic regime of labour
control has developed in these ventures. The 1995 Chinese Labour Law
has specific stipulations to protect workers’ rights and working conditions
(Du Guang 2005). But privilege and concessions are allowed to
exempt foreign companies from the Labour Law. Such labour concessions
were first made in special economic zones, but were later
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