Five other senior technical workers are highly paid at the local molding factory where Li works, a branch of the FAW Car Company Ltd They earn no less than the company's senior executives, according to Li.

Hu Yang, 25, is a mechanic with the Shenyang Aircraft Industrial Group. Contrary to the hard physical work, dirty overalls and noisy workplace most people tend to associate with his job, Hu spends most of his working hours in front of computers to start or tune up machines to ensure they are running well.

The application of new technologies has changed the very nature of most blue-collar jobs and narrowed the divide between manual and office workers in terms of workplace environment, income level and intellect required, many workers observe.

Traditionally, employees with China's state firms were categorized as manual workers and office workers, and the latter were often better educated and enjoyed higher status and better pay.

"When I was younger, everything was done manually and whoever got the dirtiest overalls was considered the most diligent. I was always exhausted at the end of the day," said Zhang Chenggang, 57,a veteran worker at the No. 1 Machine Tools Factory in Shenyang.

Today, Zhang and his colleagues wear clean uniforms and can expertly set huge machines to work with simple taps on the keyboard.

"Computers do nearly everything for us," said Zhang, "You've got to use your brain, not just your brawn, in order to get along.

When Zhang Chunhui, a computer major, graduated from university some 20 years ago, he became a blue-collar worker at a leading state firm in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, where he grew familiar with various digital equipment and developed many new technologies.

Last year, Zhang started his own business: a digital equipment company that reported over 5 million yuan (602,000 US dollars) in sales by the year's end.

Zhang said his company valued the roles of all workers, and insisted they had to keep their uniforms clean.

"When everything is automatically controlled, a uniform stained with machine oil is a result of mis-operation or poor maintenance rather than hard work," he added.

An official with the Ministry of Labor and Social Security attributed the narrowing gap between blue and white-collar workers in China to technological progress in the manufacturing industry.

"The use of modern technologies has transformed our ways of production, and very soon no one will work as we once did in primitive workshops," said Chen Yu, director of the Professional Qualification Identification Center under the ministry.

A recent survey conducted in China's commercial hub Shanghai shows that experienced technicians in communications, electronics and auto-making industries and other high and new technology sectors can earn as much as 100,000 yuan (12,048 US dollars) a year in China, a salary considered desirable even according to the standards of many business executives.

Even technicians in some traditional industries -- skilled locksmiths, pattern-makers and oil refiners -- can make 70,000 to 80,000 yuan (8,434 to 9,638 US dollars) a year, according to the same survey.

Experts even foresee further rises in blue-collar incomes, social status and overall quality with sustained technological advancement, better working conditions and new concepts in business administration.

(eastday.com October 10, 2002)