Asserts that China's rulers are trying to have a free labor market without the freedom, and that the Chinese labor union is actually a branch of the Communist Party. The result is worker exploitation and a burst of worker protests (despite the threat of jail). Describes efforts by Chinese activists to mobilize and empower workers and document…

Notes that about half of U.S. toys are made in China, mainly by young women who work extremely long shifts, 7 days a week, "amid sickening vapors and under draconian rules." Describes corporate codes of conduct, the role consumers can play in changing extremely poor working conditions, and the impact of international trade reforms.…

Since 1997, the key trend in work has been the widening gap between good jobs and bad jobs. CONFINTEA took place in the middle of an international boom in high-tech development, with attendant optimism around creation of a "knowledge economy". While the subsequent crash of this sector is no doubt temporary, it draws attention to the…

Presents comments spoken at a human rights conference by Han Dongfang, a Chinese activist who was jailed after an attempt to organize China's first independent union from a tent in Tiananmen Square during the democracy movement. Today, he is barred from the mainland but works from Hong Kong through Radio Free Asia. Comments focus on foreign…

The present condition of rural education in the western region of China is not optimistic. Existing problems include lacking education investment, poor school-running conditions, simplified running pattern and laggard concept of education. The countermeasures are: firstly, governments at all level especially the center one should increase input to…

This document consists of case studies documenting how distance education (DE) changed the lives of 23 women from the following locations: China; Hong Kong; India; Pakistan; Sri Lanka; and Bangladesh. The case studies illustrate that participating in DE can benefit not only a woman herself but also her husband, children, other family members, and…

This article profiles Han Dongfang of China, winner of the 1993 George Meany Human Rights Award given by the AFL-CIO. An organizer of the first democratic labor organization in the People's Republic of China and advocate of individual freedom, Dongfang has faced persecution in China and remains a stateless person. (SLD)

This article uses the life course perspective to combine micro- and macro-levels of analysis of caregiving burdens experienced by Chinese baby-boom cohort and then explores their elder care prospects. Based on survey interviews during 1997 and 1998 with 110 caregivers providing care to dependent parents or parents-in-law, this study finds that…

The "ISSS Annual Conference Proceedings" is a peer-reviewed professional publication published once a year following the annual conference. (Individual papers contain references.) [For the 2009 proceedings, see ED504973.]