Wednesday 31 October, 2001
WTO challenge to China's industry
Here is a question. What do you do if most of your industry is controlled by the state, employs many times more workers than is profitable, but by sacking them you risk mass unemployment or worse, mass protest. That's a question China is asking , and nowhere more so than in the North East, the bleak region bordering Russia that was once the proud birthplace of China's industrial might. And with WTO entry for China looming- it may be as soon as November this year- the problem is all the more acute, as rust-belt industries brace themselves for the stiff winds of competition to come. Listen to this series of reports by Francis Markus from North East China.
How Chinese state owned industry is coping with life after central planning
The voices of discontent within the country's restive workforce
Why the government thinks pastry making and flower arranging could be the answer to mass unemployment
Could the IT sector revitalise China? Listen to an interview with IT company director Diane Zhao, on the plus and minus sides of WTO entry
Which of the Asian giants will gain the technological edge? An interview with Satjit Singh, an Indian-born economist currently working in China
Why WTO entry may give Chinese people more uncertainty in the workplace but more choice in the market place.
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