China’s Migrant Laborers Enjoy the Downturn, take a Year in the Countryside – General

Chun Jie is once again upon us and with it the largest human migration on Earth. Last year saw 230 million passengers on China's railway network, 32 million using air travel and a staggering 2.55 billion road passenger trips, as the nations legion of more than 200 million migrant workers attempted to ring in lunar New Year at home.

A history lesson on the Chinese Exclusion Act, immigration of Chinese railway workers in the 19th century and what led to the Seattle riot of 1886, America's first anti-Chinese movement.

Imagine meeting a potential business partner online and evaluating him according to his weight. He tells you that he weighs 80kg and - judging from your own experience - you assume that he is a mature individual. If you were to go and meet him in person, you would discover that he is actually an overweight 8-year-old kid. Not only is he not fully mature, but he also has severe health problems.

On Friday morning about 17,000 workers at a Honda car parts plant in Zhongshan, China, held a protest march to the factory gates. They were demanding an almost doubling of their wages and the right to form their own labour union, as opposed to the government-controlled national federation of trade unions. It was the third Honda plant to be hit by a work stoppage in the last two weeks.