Chinese labour unrest is being replicated in south-east Asia where factories that compete with China to supply low-cost goods are facing walkouts as employees demand better pay and benefits.
In Cambodia, workers are poised to stage a three-day strike this month in a dispute over the minimum wage while in Vietnam, thousands of workers at a Taiwanese-owned shoe factory staged a strike recently demanding higher salaries.
The disputes match similar action in China, where growing worker dissatisfaction has led to industrial unrest and higher wages. As a result, foreign factory owners are increasingly moving production from southern and eastern China – long seen as the “workshop of the world” – to the interior and other Asian developing nations.