Other people perspective on Child labor in China pt. 2

In this blog, I will again be interviewing an individual about China’s labor laws. Instead of interviewing a Wheaton college student, I will be interviewing my close friend from Curry College, MA, who, unlike the Wheaton College student I interviewed in my previous blog, claims to have some general knowledge about China’s child labor. Again, my purpose of this interview is to try and get a sense of what and how the person view China’s child labor and later help them determine fact from fiction.

Me: Do you know the activities involve with child labor in China?

Interviewee: I am familiar with what is going in China with children working with very low pay. There are no child labor laws over there.

Me: Really, can you elaborate on this subject?

Interviewee: There are no child labor laws because it is due to the government receiving American profits. We are conducive to children working under these conditions.

Me: How do you feel about China’s government towards the situation of child labor?

Interviewee: I feel as though they are not doing anything to help the matter. It’s obvious that China’s government do not care about the child labor issues.

Me: If you do mind me asking, where are you getting this information?

Interviewee: What the child labor laws or American government profiting from China’s children?

Me: In general

Interviewee: From the media of course. Basically, Newspaper and television.

Me: Do you feel confidence in your findings?

Interviewee: Yes, why would they lie? They have no reason to.

In the interview, it was clear that the interviewee had some knowledge in some areas and made assumptions in others areas. When the interviewee talked about American government being conductive towards China situation, he/she was on the right track. In my previous blogs, I talked about how American companies were against a bill that was to help Chinese laborers. The article suggested that American companies only wanted to reap the benefits. This is along the lines of the interviewee was talking about. To go as far to say America is only adding to the issue is doubtful and more opinion based. Also in the interview when he/she stated that China did not have any child labor laws, this information was false according to my findings. In my previous blogs according to the Bureau of International Labor Affairs, new child labor laws were put in effect on January 1^st, 1995 for those 16 years and older. It is easy to see how he/she got confuse with this claim. What I am learning is that the media in the United States are only presenting one side to a two side story. This is how I got the conception of China’s child labor prior upon doing research. Overall this interview was helpful for me to understand other people perspective of China. Similar to the last interview, media and assumptions seems to be the way of processing information.