Catherwood LibraryILR School

As the rise of US-style market capitalism and foreign companies continues to replace state-run enterprises and weaken labor law protections and workers? rights standards in China, it is often the most vulnerable who end up paying for the economic transition. An example, as outrageous as it is becoming commonplace, is that of nineteen year-old Li Chunmei. One of tens of millions of young workers from poor families in China?s interior, who are drawn to the myriad private sub-contractor and sub-sub-contractor companies springing up in China?s coastal regions, Li Chunmei worked for the Bainan Toy Factory---a sub-contractor of Kaiming Industries---manufacturing stuffed animals and other children?s toys for sale mainly in the U.S. Working sixteen-hour days seven days a week in a factory where the air was full of fibers and the temperature often reached as high as ninety degrees, Li Chunmei returned to her company dorm coughing and hungry, and with her legs aching from standing and running all day. One night her roommates woke to find her in the bathroom coughing up blood, bleeding from her nose and mouth and moaning quietly. She died before an ambulance arrived.