Helping China

By outsourcing our work to China we have tarnished many American morals. Incidents including child labor, underpaid workers, over worked workers, unsafe working conditions, ignoring the environmental issues, and much more. In recent years we have watched the Chinese government scrambling together to get things in order. Due to the now booming export and foreign market, China has been working to get back on top of many of these issues. Free trade is not encouraging such irresponsible behavior, in fact it is doing the opposite by pushing the foreign governments like China moving again to get on top of these issues.

This past January Northern China has had a surge of pollution, specifically thick smog that encased Beijing. The pollution was rated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency with an air quality index of surpassing 300. Though this rise in pollution is not considered a good thing, in hindsight it jump started the slow moving action of the government in the effort to decrease the pollution problem they have.

On just the second “Hazardous” day, in an effort to stop Beijing’s “most polluted days on record” from lasting longer the government ordered temporarily shutting down 100 factories and one third of government vehicles off of the streets. According to Wang Anshun the Mayor of Beijing, the government has created a preliminary plan to curb the pollution, also quoted saying “I hope we can have blue skies, clean water, less traffic and a more balanced education system.” (Wong, Edward) This plan he spoke of was shown in the Xihuan, a Chinese news station: in the goal to bring down the density of major air pollutants by 2 percent this year, officials have ordered 180,000 out dated vehicles off the roads, promoting the use of clean energy government vehicles and heating systems, and growing trees over 250 square miles of land in the next five years.

Although currently this pollution issue may seem like a large product of the outsourcing our companies have done because we have helped to create these new manufacturing factories. I am not going to deny that because are part of the problem, but because our companies are over there they have their own regulations for pollution and workers and in order to keep their good reputation in tact they are going to make sure their standards are high. The need to bring a better reputation to this outsourcing is important, as it said in Businessweek, “Guarantees by multi-nationals that offshore suppliers are meeting widely accepted codes of conduct have been important to maintaining political support in the U.S. for growing trade ties with China, especially in the wake of protests by unions and antiglobalization activists.”(Secrets, Lies, and Sweatshops) Our businesses are bringing our regulations over seas and sharing them with these foreign countries who have less stringent laws. Our foreign trade business has exported more than just jobs, but money for the governments, and values such as stricter laws for a better working environment inside and outside the factory.

Works Cited

Wong, Edward. "Beijing Takes Steps to Fight Pollution as Problem Worsens." New York Times. N.p., 30 Jan. 2013. Web. 7 Mar. 2013.

"Secrets, Lies, And Sweatshops." Bloomberg Businessweek. N.p., 26 Nov. 2006. Web. 7 Mar. 2013.

Lubman, Stanley. "Working Conditions: The Persistence of Problems in China’s Factories." Wall Street Journal | China. N.p., 25 Sept. 2012. Web. 7 Mar. 2013.