Features
02.04.20
Human Resources Both Drive and Limit China’s Push for Automation
from New America
For China’s government planners, one of the most important roles for artificial intelligence (AI) and automation is addressing looming challenges in the labor market. After nearly four decades of the one-child policy, China’s aging population is...
Depth of Field
07.01.19
The Journey of a Bra
from Yuanjin Photo
Many of the photo stories in this edition of Depth of Field cover issues relating to women and gender, including a piece on women from Madagascar married to men in rural Zhejiang province, artistic photo collaborations with women and men who have...
The China Africa Project
11.10.17
Chinese Investment is Reshaping Africa’s Manufacturing Sector
Author Irene Yuan Sun argues in her new book that Africa is poised to become the world’s next manufacturing hub, boosted by Chinese investment and production expertise. With costs steadily rising in the People’s Republic of China, more and more...
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11.07.17Africa Will Take China’s Place as the next Factory of the World
Quartz
I’m only thirty, but I personally witnessed a time when China’s now car-clogged streets were full of bicycles instead. Such has been the rapidity of China’s transformation, sparked by the rise of Factory China. In the quarter century since I first...
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10.25.17Tesla Strikes Deal with Shanghai to Build Factory in China
Wall Street Journal
Electric-car maker Tesla Inc. has reached an agreement to set up its own manufacturing facility in Shanghai, according to people briefed on the plan, a move that could help the company gain traction in China’s fast-growing EV market.
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10.25.17China Shuts Down Tens of Thousands of Factories in Unprecedented Pollution Crackdown
NPR
In the gritty industrial town of Yiwu, workers prepare jeans to be dyed in a vivid range of colors.Two months ago, this factory — and this entire city, located in China's eastern province of Zhejiang — was a much quieter place. Inspection crews...
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10.18.17The Human Cost of China’s Economic Reforms
BBC
Mr Yu is worried that millions of workers the Chinese government plans to lay off from failing state owned companies will be “abandoned” like he says he was 15 years ago.
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08.22.17China, Like U.S., Struggles to Revive Industrial Heartland
New York Times
The hulking, brown–brick industrial plants lining the roads were once the backbone of this gritty city. Today, they are outdated and unwanted, and the region is one of the Chinese economy’s most troubled.
Environment
07.06.17
Industrial Energy Efficiency Can Improve Air Quality
from chinadialogue
Despite extensive efforts by the Chinese government to improve air quality, including the introduction of the State Council’s “Ten Measures” Action Plan and implementation of regional air quality control measures, air pollution recently worsened in...
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04.17.17China’s Economy Grows 6.9%, but Warning Signs Persist
New York Times
China’s economy, the world’s second-largest behind that of the United States, grew 6.9 percent in the first quarter, led by strong expansion at factories, Chinese officials said Monday.
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03.24.17China to Plant ‘Green Necklace’ of Trees Around Beijing to Fight Smog
New York Times
The pollution from the factories is responsible for much of the smog in Beijing, a city of more than 22 million, and other parts of northern China.
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03.02.17For China’s Factories, a Weaker Currency Is a Double-Edged Sword
New York Times
For the past three years, China has allowed its currency, the renminbi, to weaken in value compared with the American dollar. Yet the renminbi’s slide has provided only a marginal benefit.
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03.01.17Trump’s Not Telling the Whole Story on Trade, China Claims
Fox News
Beijing fired back Wednesday at President Trump’s claim that the U.S. has “lost 60,000 factories” since China joined the World Trade Organization, with a top diplomat suggesting the president told only part of the story.
Photo Gallery
12.08.16
Nursing An Old Flame
from Tencent QQ
Walking onto the factory floor, one finds a busy scene amid the thundering of machines. Sections of wood are being turned into thin matchsticks, and as they pass through the noisy machines, each is topped with a “little red cap.” A group of women...
Features
09.15.16
China’s Teflon Toxin Problem
from Intercept
Since the late 1970s, the chemical industry has been at the heart of China’s dazzling growth. And as regulations increase around the world, many toxic chemicals wind up coming to China just to die a slow death. Teflon—the slippery substance used in...
Environment
08.29.16
Environmental Law Blunted by Crippling Court Costs
from chinadialogue
Zhenhua Ltd. is a glass-making firm based in Dezhou, a city in China’s northeastern Shandong province. The factory sits amid a cluster of modern residential areas, so when the company failed to limit its emissions of polluted air and dust into the...
The China Africa Project
06.07.16
Industrialization in Africa: Ethiopia Wants to Become the New ‘Made in China’
There’s a pretty good chance that some of the clothes you’re wearing, the shoes on your feet, and even the device you’re using to read this were made in China. Even as its economy slows, China remains the world’s factory, churning out billions of...
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04.08.16A Portrait of Youth and Camaraderie in China (Video)
Atlantic
Xiong Di, this short film by Enric Ribes and Oriol Martínez, is a beautiful ode to friendship among young factory workers in China.
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03.09.16China's Smog-Choked Steel City Readies For Six-Month Flower Show Shutdown
Guardian
Steel mills in Tangshan sent prices rocketing by nearly 20%, ahead of an enforced shutdown later this year.
Green Space
02.16.16
Gorging on Gadgets
Documentary filmmaker Sue Williams is finishing up her latest documentary about our beloved electronic gadgets, Death By Design. I was involved in the project and traveled with Williams to south China’s Guangdong province, to the the town of Guiyu,...
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09.22.15China’s Workers Stumble as Factories Stall
Wall Street Journal
As factories run out of money and construction projects idle, China sees a rise in unrest.
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09.09.15China Will close 150 Factories to Make Sure Shanghai Disneyland Has Blue Skies
Quartz
What will Disneyland with Chinese characteristics look like?
Environment
04.16.15
Petrochemical Plant Explosion Vaporizes Government Safety Assurances
from chinadialogue
Opposing the construction of petrochemical plants making Paraxyline (PX), a key ingredient in plastic bottles and polyester clothing, has been one of the most common forms of environmental activism for China’s urban residents in the past decade.On...
Photo Gallery
04.10.15
Stroller Factory, 1999
In 1999, photographer Willem Wernsen spent ten days in the small city of Kengzi, in Guangdong province, about 30 miles northeast of Shenzhen in an industrial zone. This was part of a longer, five-week trip, Wernsen’s first to the People’s Republic...
Caixin Media
03.10.15
China’s Factories Are Building a Robot Nation
Every day, two quality-control supervisors monitor four robots tirelessly assembling remote-control devices for home appliances at a Midea Group factory in Foshan, in the southern province of Guangdong.The robots recently replaced 14 workers on the...
Viewpoint
02.20.15
Major China Apple Supplier Pays Workers Less Than Foxconn
Apple, the world’s most beloved maker of sleek mobile phones, powerful personal computers, and slim portable music players recently reported record profits—money a new report from the New York-based nongovernmental organization China Labor Watch (...
Caixin Media
11.24.14
At Factory Waste Ponds, Fumes Choke Fantasies
Deep in the Tengger Desert, near a community of cattle herders about 700 kilometers west of Beijing, pipes from a complex of coal processing and chemical factories once spewed slimy wastewater into six ponds.The "evaporation ponds" were...
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08.04.14Death Toll Rises to 75 in Chinese Factory Blast
Associated Press
The death toll in for an explosion at a Chinese auto parts factory has risen to 75 people, as investigators fault poor safety measures and news reports reveal that workers had long complained of dangerous levels of dust.
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08.03.14Death Toll Rises to 75 in Chinese Factory Blast
ABC
The death toll in for an explosion at a Chinese auto parts factory has risen to 75 people, as investigators fault poor safety measures and news reports reveal that workers had long complained of dangerous levels of dust at the facility.
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05.14.14Protestors Torch Factories in Southern Vietnam as China Protests Escalate
CNN
Properties in the Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Parks (VSIP) I & II in Binh Duong were targeted by thousands of protesters demonstrating over China's deployment of an oil rig in disputed waters.
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04.15.14Massive China Shoe Factory Strike Rolls on as Offer Falls Flat
Reuters
Chinese shoe factory workers shrugged off an offer of improved benefits, prolonging one of the largest strikes in recent years amid signs of increased labor activism as the economy slows.
Media
01.23.14
Out of the Dark Room
Photographers document China’s breakneck development in fractions of a second every single day. Yet the work of Chinese photojournalists remains largely unseen outside their homeland. Of the thousands of images of the country illustrating the pages...
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10.28.13U.S. Factories Hit by Shutdown, China Production Rises
Reuters
Factories in China boosted production this month, but U.S. manufacturing output fell for the first time in four years while the euro zone economy lost momentum, surveys on Thursday showed.
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06.27.13Captive U.S. Factory Executive Released
WSJ: China Real Time Report
A U.S. executive held captive in his factory was freed on Thursday after a six-day standoff with employees. The co-owner of Florida-based Specialty Medical Supplies, who had been held hostage by workers since Friday in the...
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06.26.13Meet the American Factory Owner Held for Ransom in China
Christian Science Monitor
Chip Starnes, the American executive who has been held hostage for six days by disgruntled workers at his factory here, finds himself in a predicament that is far from uncommon in China. His employees at Specialty Medical Supplies, fearing...
Reports
03.07.13
Between the Lines: Listening to Female Factory Workers in China
BSR
Women are crucial to China’s manufacturing sector. While women comprise more than 44% of the overall workforce, they represent about 60% of workers who migrate from rural areas to cities to work in factories. These female workers are diverse, with...
Photo Gallery
02.12.13
Welcome to Wuwucun, a Village in the City
Tucked amidst the factories and shops of of the Longgang district of the southern boomtown of Shenzhen sits a handful of narrow Qing Dynasty lanes collectively called Wuwucun, after the original Hakka minority Wu clan who established the village in...
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08.24.12China Confronts Mounting Piles of Unsold Goods
New York Times
After three decades of torrid growth, China is encountering an unfamiliar problem with its newly struggling economy: a huge buildup of unsold goods that is cluttering shop floors, clogging car dealerships and filling factory warehouses.