When faced with low wages and increased living costs, the workers at Honda's components factory in Foshan did what many other factory workers across the Pearl River Delta have done - go on strike to demand higher pay. At Foxconn's massive factory complex in Shenzhen, however, workers making even less money did not strike. Rather, they hunkered down and worked for 12 hours a day, six days a week, to make up the shortfall. Many later walked off the job to look for better work elsewhere but, tragically, 10 young employees, feeling alone and desperate, jumped to their deaths from the roofs of their dormitories.

More than 20 female workers were detained after police attempted to break up a two-week-long strike at a former state-owned cotton mill in Pingdingshan, Henan. The workers, eight of whom were listed by name, were accused of “disrupting production” (扰乱生产), according to reports circulating on the Chinese internet. Up to 3,000 police officers moved in to clear the factory gate on 1 June, which had been blocked by striking workers since 14 May. Some of the 5,000 workers have reportedly returned to work but the majority remains on strike.

Listen to the following statements about the strike at Honda's transmission plant in Guangdong province, one that has brought the Japanese company's car production throughout China to a juddering halt. The first goes like this: "The strike reflects the low wages the bosses are paying the workers . . . The system does not provide a legal base for collective bargaining." The second, like this: "In the three decades of opening-up, ordinary workers are among those who have received the smallest share of economic prosperity. The temporary stoppage of production lines in the four Honda factories . . . highlights the necessity of organised labour protection in Chinese factories."

The suicides at Foxconn and the strike at Honda's components factory in Foshan have focused almost unprecedented international media attention on the plight of China's workers. Commentators have asked why are workers taking such drastic action, are we seeing an upsurge in worker activism, and if so could that threaten social and political stability in China?