Apple lovers overlook workers
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A 24-year-old worker who worked at Foxconn for six months said it was a struggle to find a better-paid, better-regulated job than making iPads. He couldn't even afford an iPad himself, he joked.
"Although Foxconn violated various labor laws, it is still much better than some of the private factories," Liao said.
In response to the mounting global furor, Apple relased the Apple Supplier Responsibility 2011 Progress Report stating that more than 100 factory audits had been conducted and alleging they had achieved positive results and progress.
"It's unwise to blame all the dirty work on multinationals," said the iPad shopper. "It's the central and local governments' jobs to protect workers in China, to set up rules for supervising foreign companies. If it wasn't for the poor supervision that makes manufacturing so cheap in China, multinationals like Apple would probably not choose China to build their factories."
The sweatshop issue was indeed "a complicated beast," as a labor expert at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou put it.
"Lack of knowledge of labor rights as well as loopholes in the legal system for protecting workers is perhaps one cause of the different attitudes between Chinese people and Westerners," said Shen Shuguang.
China's status as a global workshop, Shen said, is the key to understanding the Apple situation where lower labor costs drive a manufacturing advantage.
The government plays a vital role in perfecting laws and social welfare, he said.
He'd buy an iPad in the full knowledge of labor abuse, said one shopper in Xidan, Beijing, who requested anonymity.
"Boycotting iPad won't help China improve labor conditions," he said.
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