麻豆约拍

Are wages rising for China's workers and will that mean higher prices for Chinese goods? Strikes have taken place and wage demands have risen, in the heartland of Chinese manufacturing.

The world's attention has focussed on pay and conditions at one particular factory, the Foxconn plant in southern China, which makes iPads and iPhones for Apple. After a series of suicides there, the Taiwanese-owned company has offered to double the wages of staff, by October.

The announcement follows a double-digit pay increase for Honda's Chinese workforce. Added to that, the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has called for better treatment of migrant workers, saying government officials and society should treat them "as their own children".

The 麻豆约拍's Chris Hogg reports from the city of Shenzhen, and talks to a Foxconn worker who wants better conditions.

Plus, Lesley Curwen interviews Dr.Zhou Xuelin, the assistant president of the China Europe International Business School in Shanghai, who edits a management magazine for Chinese business leaders. He argues that the significance of the Foxconn story has been exaggerated outside China.

And, we hear from Peter Sjovall, chief financial officer of Asian Bamboo, a German company operating in China, about whether changes in the labour market affect his business.