China’s finance minister has come under fire after he proposed changing a labour law he said was overprotective of employees and inflexible to business.
Lou Jiwei’s remarks on national television on March 7 caused a storm on social media, with many Chinese venting their frustration at a government they say is out of touch with their concerns.
“He represents the backward forces, sweatshops and those small workshops that should long have been eliminated,” a user named Du Jian said in one characteristic post on Sina Weibo, China’s version of Twitter. “Lou is holding China back and wants to keep us reined to the tattered wagon of the sweatshop!”