Friday, November 07, 2008

Fist Full of RMB

Following up on the previous story, here’s more.

Tens of thousands of migrant workers are leaving the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou after losing their jobs, railway officials say.

The increase to 130,000 passengers leaving the city’s main station daily is being blamed on the credit crunch.

Guangzhou is one of China’s largest manufacturing hubs, but many companies who export products have collapsed.

Chinese officials are worried that a sudden increase in unemployment could lead to social unrest.

By “social unrest” they mean “questioning the Party.” That being said, the Chinese aren’t going to pull an Obama and tighten up their trade agreements.  If anything they’ll liberalize them further to provide an incentive for other countries to continue to buy products manufactured in China.