Guess who supports Chinese sweatshops and low pay?

We do. (My bold): (updated: forgot link)

In a historically unprecedented visit, influential Chinese scholar and labor-law expert Liu Cheng arrived in Washington, DC, to garner support from US legislators and labor leaders for a law that is pending not before the US Congress but before the National People's Congress (NPC) in China. Liu Cheng has been a key adviser to the drafters on a labor-law reform bill currently working its way through the Chinese legislative process.

His visit is part of a behind-the-scenes battle that is raging worldwide over reforms in China's labor law. On the one side are Wal-Mart, Google, General Electric (GE) and other global corporations that have been aggressively lobbying to limit new rights for Chinese workers. On the other side are pro-worker-rights forces in China, backed by labor, human rights, and political forces in the US and around the world.

Liu Cheng's visit to Washington was part of that international support campaign. He warned in an interview that support for the new law within China is not enough. "Some National People's Congress representatives are influenced by the employer lobby. Although the principles of the amendments are secure, there may be concessions on the details, so we call for help."

[snip]

On December 8, shortly after last year's elections, Democrats Lynn Woolsey, Barbara Lee, George Miller, Barney Frank and 28 other members of the House of Representatives introduced legislation calling on Bush to express public support for the workers' rights and protection provisions in China's draft labor law and repudiate efforts by some US corporations and their representatives in China to limit new rights for workers.

This legislation properly places the focus on the actual role of US corporations in China. Their action is part of the broader effort by a Democratic-controlled Congress to take the policymaking initiative away from the Bush administration.

The exposure of corporate opposition to expanded labor rights for Chinese workers has also generated outrage among labor organizations and their allies around the world. Inside China, leaders of the ACFTU have been fighting efforts by companies to restrict unions' role in setting new employer policies.

Want to fight back? Scare the corporate world with these words: Want less, buy less, use up, recycle, repair.