2010-02-26

China gehen die Billig-Arbeitskräfte aus

Billige Arbeiter werden im Süden und Südosten Chinas verstärkt zur Mangelware:
Die Exportindustrie in Chinas Küstenprovinzen Guangdong (in der Nachbarschaft von Hongkong) und Zheijiang (südlich von Shanghai) hat ein Problem, das sich bereits seit längerem angekündigt hat, aber für europäische Ohren dennoch ganz ungewöhnlich klingt: Arbeitskräftemangel. Nach dem gerade zuende gegangenen chinesischen Neujahrsfest fällt es vielen Unternehmen im Herzland der chinesischen Exportindustrie schwer, genug Arbeiter zu finden. Das geht aus einem Bericht der KP-Zeitung Global Times hervor. Viele Betriebe in der Exportindustrie beschäftigen meist junge Wanderarbeiter aus den Inlandsprovinzen. Wie in China üblich sind diese übers Neujahrsfest zu ihren Familien zurückgekehrt, und zeigen jetzt offenbar wenig Neigung, an ihre alten Arbeitsplätze zurückzukehren.

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2010-02-02

US-Bürgerrechtler outen Regime-Kollaborateure

Die US-Bürgerrechtsorganisation Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) hat eine Liste mit sieben US-amerikanischen IT-Firmen erstellt, die mehr oder weniger offen mit Peking bei der Überwachung und Zensur des Internet zusammenarbeiten:
Drawing from published news articles, EFF has compiled a list of seven corporations that are reportedly selling surveillance technology to the Chinese government and related entities. We're designating them "corporations of interest". ...

Cisco: Cisco's deep involvement in the building of China's Golden Shield Project has been admitted by the company. Cisco's involvement has even already been raised before Congress, including the fact that Cisco engineers gave a presentation acknowledging the repressive uses for their technology that quoted their Chinese government buyers as saying that Cisco's products could be used to "combat 'Falun Gong' evil religion and other hostiles." The UK's Guardian reports that Cisco provides over 60% of all routers, switches, and network gear to China and estimates that Cisco makes $500 million annually from China.

Nortel: Rolling Stone and The Guardian report that Nortel has sold hardware to aid the Golden Shield Project for surveillance and censorship purposes, including working with Tsinghua University to develop speech recognition software to monitor telephone conversations.

Oracle: Business Week reports that Oracle has sold software to the Chinese Ministry of Public Security for criminal and ideological investigations. Oracle admits that one-third of its business in China is with the government.

Motorola: Business Week also reports that Motorola sold the Chinese authorities handheld devices for street cops to tap into "sophisticated data repositories" on Chinese citizens.

EMC: Business Week also reports that EMC sold "sophisticated data repositories" to the Chinese public security authorities. The top EMC executive in Beijing is quoted as saying, "We can expect big revenue from public security agencies" in China.

Sybase: Business Week also reports that Sybase sells database programs to the Shanghai police.

L-1 Identity Solutions: Rolling Stone reports that this Connecticut-based biometrics company sold software to Chinese companies that aids government officials in identifying individuals for purposes of criminal investigations.

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