Transcript

MATTHEW CARNEY: It may not look like it from up here, but the Chinese juggernaut is slowing down. The most visible sign – more and more eerie places like this – whole cities built for workers who never come. North Eastern China is ground zero. Just several years ago, growth here was 14%. Now it’s barely above 2%. 

[walking in middle of highway] “No economy has risen so rapidly and so many buildings been built so quickly. It’s unprecedented in human history. During boom times, a city like this was built once a month, then it was a testament to a prosperous future and now a legacy to China’s slow down”.

It’s early morning in New Shenfu city. These are the only residents we can find. 

CHINESE PERSON: “We’re retired and didn’t want to live in a bustling city. We prefer a quiet place with fresh air”. 

MATTHEW CARNEY: And it is that. The streets are empty and apartments abandoned. This city was built to take the overflow from China’s once booming industrial heartland, but now the old engines of the economy – construction, coal and steel – are slowing. 

“So we’re in the centre of the city and that steel ring behind me is meant to symbolise eternal growth and life but not in this city, there’s just high rise after high rise, after high rise of empty apartments”. 

We chance upon a former construction worker who says the building stopped three years ago. 

CONSTRUCTION WORKER: “It’s a waste of money, resources and energy. These buildings are finished but if nobody lives in them it’s a useless investment. It’s a government investment so it will be left abandoned. The government has no effective way of dealing with this problem”.

MATTHEW CARNEY: It’s not long before the men in black cars turn up. They’re Communist Party officials who shut down the interview and they say they want to take us to a place where we can see something good. 

SPOKESWOMAN: “Good afternoon leaders and guests. Welcome to the exhibition centre”.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Inside this bubble is their vision of what New Shenfu will become – a thriving high tech metropolis. 

“The world and China has been affected by the slowdown, what impact do you think it’s actually having here?”

SPOKESWOMAN: “How should I respond to this question?”

MATTHEW CARNEY: The diligent spokeswoman is being directed by Party officials who aren’t keen to come on camera. 

PARTY OFFICIAL: “Our industries are technologically advanced so there is a minimal impact”. 

SPOKESWOMAN: “We have many new industries and technologically advanced manufacturing here. So the national economy only has a minimal impact”.

MATTHEW CARNEY: It belies the reality outside. Just a short drive away, more wasted concrete. An entire city built around the national sporting games of 2013 with barely a soul in sight. It’s believed there could be another fifty places like this in China, all built on debt which has more than doubled in the past decade. 

Next to the ghost cities is a real one, Shenyang, home to ten million and a major centre in the North East. The wealth here originally came from heavy industry, but now the government is hoping a new middle class can help transform the economy to one built on consumption, technology and services. 

Instead, more signs of stagnation, everywhere you look. This was meant to be cheap public housing but it lies abandoned. 

“So we’re actually in Shenyang city and there’s 55 buildings here, something like 15,000 apartments and the problem is, there’s many more like this in this city”.

The slowdown is starting to take a human toll. Many in Shenyan start the day with the hope of finding work. One of them is Ma Jian, a former construction worker. He hasn’t had a job in 10 days and is getting desperate.

MA JIAN: “I have no income these days. What will my wife and kids live on? My kids go to school and we need food. We have to pay for this”.

MATTHEW CARNEY: The days of getting a job with cradle to grave care at a state owned enterprise are over for these men. They now come to this itinerant labour market and hustle for a day’s work. If they’re lucky they’ll be put into a van and taken to earn $20 a day. 

“Thousands come here every day looking for work and you can see the anger and desperation here. Really they say the government is not helping and that they’re doing nothing for them, and that the Party officials are only helping themselves”.

CHINESE MAN SEEKING WORK #1: “Many migrant workers lack work. They want to work, but there is none! Without it, we can’t survive. What has the government done? They should come here and have a look at the grassroots – the bottom of society”.

YAO MINGJUN: “The bosses exploit us. It’s like a slave system. In Chairman Mao’s time there was nothing like this market. Am I right? If society was well managed nobody would starve. We would all have work and food on the table. I demand to know why the government is so corrupt. Why doesn’t it give us a good life and a stable job?”

MATTHEW CARNEY: Yao Mingjun was a coal miner for 33 years before he was forced into early retirement. 

YAO MINGJUN: “Everyone here agrees – it’s very hard to live now. Life’s a struggle, like during the ‘60s and ‘70s. It’s the biggest problem now in Chinese society. The President has abandoned us”.

MATTHEW CARNEY: It’s only going to get worse, but how bad is hard to know. The government won’t reveal true unemployment figures but it has said another six million will lose their jobs in coal and steel. 

CHINESE MAN SEEKING WORK #2: “This is the most corrupt dynasty in human history! Corrupt officials get money by the trainload. Only one in a thousand is caught. The other nine hundred and ninety-nine escape unpunished”.

CHINESE MAN SEEKING WORK #1: “Real life for ordinary Chinese people can only be seen here at the lowest levels of society. They say the happiness level of the Chinese people is rising. Bullshit! You must come to a place like this to see the real China. Right?”

MATTHEW CARNEY: For an 11th day Ma Jian doesn’t get any work. He and coalminer Yao Mingjun agree to show us where they live. They move around sleeping in temporary accommodation as they chase work. They get a bed here for a dollar a night. 

YAO MINGJUN: “This is where I live. It’s where migrant workers live. You can see how crowded it is. Our living conditions are bad compared to your country”.

MATTHEW CARNEY: About 20 will bunk in this small apartment every night, not knowing where the next job or meal will come from. A new underclass is emerging and it poses a huge threat to the government. Suddenly the landlord tells us to leave. And later, Yao Mingjun reveals he was beaten by this man for bringing us to the apartment.

YAO MINGJUN: “Feel my head, there are lumps here. They hit me with their fists. Luckily there’s no blood. I’m not afraid of revenge attacks and beatings. Even if they try to kill me, I’ll still speak from my heart”. I’m not lying. Chinese society won’t be any good if we leave it as it is”.

MATTHEW CARNEY: To truly understand what the economic slowdown might mean for China, you have to come south to Shenzhen. Once a tiny fishing village, it’s now known as the world’s factory. Since the 1980s, 270 million migrant workers have moved from their villages to provide the cheap labour that made China the world’s second biggest economy.

[in local street] “The dilemma for migrant workers and for the government is that if they lose their jobs they don’t go home. There’s nothing for them left in their villages. Most stay and if they get a new job, it’s often with less pay and worse conditions and that’s making the masses resentful and angry”.

[heavily armed police controlling angry striking crowds]

Last year there was an average of 8 strikes a day, nearly 3,000 for 2015 – twice as many as the year before. It’s proving to be the single biggest challenge to government control. 

ZHANG ZIRU: “If China’s system doesn’t improve and the Government fails to make political reforms, grievances and grudges will grow until society explodes”.

MATTHEW CARNEY: We’ve come to meet prominent labour activist, Zhang Ziru and it’s surprising he’s still operating. Most other activists have been silenced, detained or disappeared. 

ZHANG ZIRU: “Chinese workers should have a group of our own. We need changes to the system and laws to solve social and political problems”. 

MATTHEW CARNEY: Mr Zhang has lived the boom and now the slowdown in the south. Factories are closing and others are relocating to the outer provinces or South East Asia where labour and rents are cheaper. He first came here when he was 15 to work in a shoe factory.

ZHANG ZIRU: “I really suffered a lot during those years. I truly know how hard and miserable it is to be a worker. I understand the injustices they suffer in today’s society”.

MATTHEW CARNEY: A self-taught lawyer, Mr Zhang has helped organise some of China’s biggest strikes, up to 50,000 protestors at a time. Most of these strikes go unreported and police brutality is the norm. He expects worker unrest to grow as the slowdown gets worse. 

Mr Zhang lets us film how he works. His organisation, Spring Breeze, is based out of this small office. He says one of his primary tasks is to educate workers about their rights. 

ZHANG ZIRU: “The value we create through our work should ensure a life of dignity. What we lack is a fair distribution of rewards. So we should change the unfair situation”.

MATTHEW CARNEY: He tries to use China’s legal system to solve disputes. Often the laws can be liberal on paper but they’re rarely enforced. 

CHINESE MAN IN ZHANG’S CLASS: “We are learning about our rights and how to fight for them”.

MATTHEW CARNEY: The idea is also to encourage and stimulate debate, grass roots politics, unacceptable to the authorities. 

ZHANG ZIRU: “Today’s Chinese Communist Party does not represent the interests of the majority of Chinese people – just the wealthy minority class. In many conflicts between capital and labour the Party naturally sides with capital”.

MATTHEW CARNEY: These are dangerous sentiments.

ZHANG ZIRU: “I’ve been arrested so many times I can’t count them all. Once I was arrested five times in the same week”. 

MATTHEW CARNEY: [in office] “All the phones, all the mobiles, all the social media and even Mr Zhang’s car are tracked, they’re monitored, they’re bugged. The police could come through here at any moment and arrest Mr Zhang as they’ve done countless times in the past”.

Wu Fengqun is one of those Mr Zhang is trying to help. She came to Shenzhen and worked in the same clothing factory for a decade. She worked hard and landed a supervisor’s job, then took out a loan to build her dream home back in her village. 

Last year the company downsized and she took a big pay cut. Then she and her co-workers discovered the company had not been paying welfare benefits like housing and medical allowances. Mr Zhang helped them organise a campaign of strikes and after that, they were sacked. 

WU FENGQUN: [crying] “I feel heartbroken when I think about what happened. The government didn’t care about my fellow workers at all. It always sides with the boss. The boss doesn’t pay for breaking the law. Why is it wrong for us to protect our legal rights?”

MATTHEW CARNEY: Like most migrant workers, she’s made enormous sacrifices in the hope of creating a better life for her family. Wu left her son behind in the village and lost 10 years of life with him.

WU FENGQUN: [looking at picture of son on phone] “Of course I have regrets. It would have been better if I’d married a local farmer I suppose. At least I wouldn’t have to live apart from my husband and son. I feel guilty about not being there for my son as he grew up”.

MATTHEW CARNEY: To survive she’s forced to take short term contracts where the pay is much worse and the hours much longer. 

WU FENGQUN: “It’s just impossible… to fulfil any dream. I think I’ll work for two or three more years and then go back to my home town”.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Then the knock at the door. The authorities are never far away. They tell us we can’t continue the interview. They’re from residential security, another layer of China’s police state. 

POLICEMAN: “We are police from the local station in charge of the floating population. Don’t you know about us?”

MATTHEW CARNEY: Labour activist Mr Zhang has also paid a heavy price for his work. He now lives and sleeps in his office. The authorities forced his family to move 13 times in the last couple of years. So to protect them, he divorced his wife.

ZHANG ZIRU: “My family did not have a stable place to live. Most of the time we were escaping from place to place. [upset] Then the thought came to me that maybe my family would have a better life if I left them”.

MATTHEW CARNEY: It’s late at night and Mr Zhang is heading to another meeting. He knows there’s a long way to go in the fight for workers’ rights and he’s fatalistic about what might happen to him.

ZHANG ZIRU: “Even if I am falsely accused of disrupting social order I’ll only get a three to five year jail sentence. I accept that risk”.

MATTHEW CARNEY: He says it’s worth it as progress is being made.

ZHANG ZIRU: “Workers nowadays are quite different from three years ago. Their awareness and consciousness are changing quickly”.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Tonight he’s meeting with representatives of workers in a firm making medical equipment. The company is about to be sold, but the reps discovered management hasn’t been paying their social insurance which can make up to 30% of workers’ wages.

CHINESE WORKER: “We have worked in this factory for many years but the company has never told us about these rights. With Zhang’s help we’ve informed and educated ourselves. We realised that we must demand our rights”.

MATTHEW CARNEY: So the workers went on a go slow for a week and it seems to have worked. They’ve received a contract from management that basically meets their demands. Mr Zhang says the contract is still vague so they’ll still have to keep the pressure on management as he negotiates further.

ZHANG ZIRU: “The company said it will pay workers according to the law. We should not let them be so vague. We need them to clarify this”.

MATTHEW CARNEY: The following week the company agrees to the revised demands. Mr Zhang’s job is done.

ZHANG ZIRU: “I consider this work my vocation. It’s not just a temporary job to try to survive. Other people may give up when they’re under pressure. This is my life-long career. No matter what challenges I face I will never quit”.