In the old days Guangdong migrant workers like Liu Xiaorong would have been treated as factory fodder, given the bare minimum in wages and easily replaced if they complained. The tables have turned with an acute labour shortage in the so-called "factory of the world" meaning workers like Liu now call the shots. Even the lure of three times the normal pay and perks such as air conditioning, basketball courts and television is not enough to get workers to sign up.

Well into the second week of the spring semester, hundreds of migrant children in Beijing’s Chaoyang district still have no school to go to. This despite a pledge made last week by the Chaoyang education committee that; “no school-age child will be out of school.” It seems all the Chaoyang government has done to honour its promise so far is to put up a notice listing the township offices where parents who had yet to find a school for their children could register. However, when questioned by the media, neither parents nor the township offices concerned were even aware of this notice.

Foreign investment in south China is expected to fall 4.9 percent this year, with firms facing the challenge of labour shortages and rising wages, according to a survey by the region's American business chamber.

Critics are calling on the Chinese government to overhaul the hukou household registration system. They say it deprives millions of rural migrant workers of vital public services in cities, creating what has been described as China's apartheid. There has been much discussion at the National People's Congress this month about changing China's household registration system, called the hukou.