NR | 3h 32m | Documentary | 2023 At least these cramped garment factories do not use Uyghur slave labor. Nevertheless, their employment practices would trouble many Americans. The young workers, largely in their late teens are only paid pennies according to the factories’ piecemeal terms. Yet, they rarely consider themselves victims, because such work represents the best available option for China’s young and unemployed rural poor. From 2014 to 2019, independent Chinese documentarian Wang Bing followed a large group of these college-aged factory workers for a prospective trilogy, the first of which, “Youth (Spring).” Zhili is about 100 miles from Shanghai, but most of the youthful factory workers hail from rural Anhui and Henan provinces. Most of them are illegal migrant workers in their own country, because of China’s strict work-residency regulations. Of course, that makes the young workers easy to exploit. Never in the film (recorded over a five-year span) does a government inspector darken any of the factories’ doors, so it is likely safe to assume the authorities are looking the other way....Read more https://www.theepochtimes.com/bright/youth-spring-real-life-in-a-chinese-factory-5523968
A Senate committee has approved a bill that would further regulate foreign financial gifts to American universities and levy hefty fines against those who fail to comply. A bipartisan majority of the Senate Committee on Education and the Workforce voted on Nov. 7 to approve the Defending Education Transparency and Ending Rogue Regimes Engaging in Nefarious Transactions (DETERRENT) Act. Committee chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) said that the bill was necessary to counter the increasing malign influence of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and other adversarial powers. “What we know is happening in institutions all around the country is that countries like China, Qatar, maybe even Iran … give money to the universities,” Ms. Foxx told NTD, a sister media outlet of The Epoch Times....
China on Tuesday told traders to report real-time export information of rare earths, as part of its latest efforts to control the supply chain of critical minerals amid tensions with the West. Exporters of rare earth minerals will be mandated to immediately disclose details such as the destination, quantity, shipping particulars, and other transaction information, according to a statement published on the website of China’s Ministry of Commerce. The new restrictions will come into effect on Oct. 31 and last for two years. The new rules are Beijing’s latest efforts to tighten its grip on rare earths, a group of 17 elements used in many things from commercial technology like electric cars to military equipment. China, a monopoly supplier of rare earths in the world, has required exporters to obtain permits to ship the critical material....