“We get out to the edge of the core of Shenzhen and we come to the gates. Because thirtyone years ago, when Deng Xiaoping carved this area off from the rest of China with a big red
pen, he said, “This will be the Special Economic Zone,” and he made a deal with the
corporations, he said, “Listen, use our people, do whatever you want to our people, just give us a
modern China.” And the corporations took that deal and they squeezed and they squeezed and
what they got is the Shenzhen we find today.”
Was that really the deal they made, Mike? Based on your track record of dishonesty, I have a hard time believing that that is exactly how it happened. Now, I’m just your Average American Consumer, and I don’t know much about what life is like in China, but I do know that the Chinese government did not explicitly offer up their people as minimum wage slaves in exchange for rapid economic growth. Don’t you think it’s possible that they were trying to build a better future for their country and it didn’t work out exactly as they planned? Sure, there’s things that need to be fixed, but I don’t think they intended for this to happen.
In reference to Mike asking a worker the question, “What would you change at Foxconn if you could change anything”
Mike says
“That last question always gets them. They always react like a bee has flown into their
faces and then they say something to Cathy and Cathy says, “He says he never thought of that
before.” Every time. Every time.”
Cathy replies:
Mike, that never happened. I know your trying to make a point with this whole performance thing, but now you’re just making the Chinese people look like idiots. “He says he never thought of that before”? You really think this worker, who’s life is supposedly so horrible, has never thought about how things could be better at work? Give the people some credit. They’re not mindless lemmings who do as their told. They have dreams and aspirations, just like you arrogant Americans who think everyone else needs your help.
Business, Government and Society fiVe 
Until I read your post, I actually had not thought about how ridiculous Daisey’s statement was that workers had never thought about what they would change at Foxconn. People are always looking for ways to improve their job, even if they have their dream occupation. Cathy’s interruption here brings up a good point- if people were working under such horrible circumstances they would surely think about possible ways to make things better.