Teacher Labor Abuses in China Chronicled

Washington

As China’s economy surges, many of the workers powering that growth are coping with low wages, scarce legal protections, and poor on-the-job conditions—not just in mines and factories, but also in classrooms, a leading labor advocate from that country contends.

Han Dongfang, who took part in the Tiananmen Square protests and now directs a Chinese labor-rights organization, detailed concerns about the rights of educators and other workers at a Washington event this week, which coincided with the release of a pair of reports on labor conditions in China.

The reports describe growing concerns about labor abuses that critics say have occurred in state-owned industries and in the private sector that has expanded...