Out of the wreck of the Cultural Revolution, China’s leaders
have built an economy that is gaining an ever greater share of
world manufacturing. They have thereby raised the living standards
of hundreds of millions of citizens. Notoriously, this manufacturing
success is marred by widespread labor abuses, epitomized
by the sweatshop staffed by suffering migrant women
workers. Domestically, rising labor disputes and evidence of
emerging labor shortages stoke demands for policy reform.
Better regulatory strategies are needed to deal with these
widespread labor abuses. Confining consideration to the feasible
rather than the ideal—accepting that radical change to
China’s legal and political institutions is unlikely in the short
term—those strategies must be devised in light of the existing
institutional context. This entails analyzing the deficiencies of
those institutions and identifying opportunities for improvement.
The analysis undertaken here has focused on underpayment
of wages. This Article argues that the legal norms directed