Posted on Thursday, August 31, 2006 10:43 AM
#central kindom
even if the Wu Hao case is not related to the chinese government, it will not be reported as wildly as the foxconn case by chinese media and the public will not pay the same attention as they pay it to the foxconn case.
why? because there is one important element missing in the wu hao case - relevance.
deep in the public psyche for the foxconn case, it's the disgust at big corporations that treat workers inhumanly. it's an unfortuante reality related with china's current position in the international value creation chain, it's a widely existing phenomenon and is highly relevant to many people's lives. this is what drives people mad at foxconn.
the foxconn case makes people ask such questions as "what is a good corportation?", "should we welcome foreign investment with any price?", "how to evalute local government?", "what china should do to protect workers rights?", "what are the roles of free press to protect workers rights?". such questions will lead to far-reaching impacts on the chinese society, just like the Sun Zhigang case did.
in this regard, wu hao is not such a good "china story" but foxconn case is.
related links:
What makes news? My Life As An Activist JournalistFoxconn finale: All's well that ends in retreat?