Join us for a free one-day workshop for educators at the Japanese American National Museum, hosted by the USC U.S.-China Institute and the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia. This workshop will include a guided tour of the beloved exhibition Common Ground: The Heart of Community, slated to close permanently in January 2025. Following the tour, learn strategies for engaging students in the primary source artifacts, images, and documents found in JANM’s vast collection and discover classroom-ready resources to support teaching and learning about the Japanese American experience.
Working Conditions and Worker Rights in China: Recent Developments
Representative Christopher Smith and Senator Sherrod Brown of the
Congressional-Executive Commission on China announce a hearing.
In recent months, several reports have been released regarding working conditions in Chinese factories that manufacture products popular in the United States—laptops, iPhones, iPads, cordless phones. These reports document excessive overtime, crowded and unsafe working and living conditions, underage workers, and unpaid wages. They note that Chinese workers do not have the right to organize into independent unions, and that the state-controlled union does little to represent them. Meanwhile, China has enacted laws in recent years intended to address worker issues, and the state-controlled union has pledged to better represent workers.
The hearing's witnesses will discuss the prevalence of harsh working conditions in Chinese factories in places like Shenzhen and Shanghai, assess implementation of China's labor laws, and examine the roles the Chinese government, China's state-controlled union, Chinese NGOs, and private companies, including multinationals, play in addressing worker rights and labor reforms. Witnesses will also provide recommendations for U.S. policy on worker rights in China.
For related Commission analysis, please see "NGOs Report Harsh Conditions at Chinese Factories Making Popular Electronics."
This hearing will be webcast.
Witnesses:
Panel I:
Charles Kernaghan, Executive Director, Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights
Li Qiang, Executive Director and Founder, China Labor Watch
Harry Wu, Founder and Executive Director, Laogai Research Foundation and Laogai Museum
Panel II:
Thea Lee, Deputy Chief of Staff, AFL-CIO
Mary Gallagher, Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan
Earl Brown, Labor and Employment Law Counsel and China Program Director, Solidarity Center, AFL-CIO
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Please join us for the Grad Mixer! Hosted by USC Annenberg Office of International Affairs, Enjoy food, drink and conversation with fellow students across USC Annenberg. Graduate students from any field are welcome to join, so it is a great opportunity to meet fellow students with IR/foreign policy-related research topics and interests.
RSVP link: https://forms.gle/1zer188RE9dCS6Ho6
Events
Hosted by USC Annenberg Office of International Affairs, enjoy food, drink and conversation with fellow international students.
Join us for an in-person conversation on Thursday, November 7th at 4pm with author David M. Lampton as he discusses his new book, Living U.S.-China Relations: From Cold War to Cold War. The book examines the history of U.S.-China relations across eight U.S. presidential administrations.