A spate of suicides leaves ten dead at the Shenzhen campus of Foxconn, the giant electronics manufacturer that makes many of the world's most popular consumer electronics. A rare strike paralyzes production at Honda Motors, shutting down all of the company's manufacturing lines in the country. In response, both companies offer substantial concessions to workers, causing many to ask if this marks the end of China's reign as the low-cost "workshop to the world"?

This week on Sinica, host Kaiser Kuo welcomes Kathleen McLaughlin, a prolific reporter for the Bureau of National Affairs and Global Post who has written extensively on electronics manufacturing trends in China. We're also joined by Jonathan Watts, Beijing-based correspondent for The Guardian, who is just back from a visit to the massive Foxconn facility in Shenzhen. Also with us is Danwei founder Jeremy Goldkorn. We look at the problems afflicting labor in China: are these simply the result of poor working conditions, or is there more at work here?

If you enjoy this podcast, be sure to share your thoughts in the comments section, or by writing us at sinica@popupchinese.com. And remember, to subscribe to the Sinica show through RSS, just open up iTunes, click on the "Advanced" menu and select the option "Subscribe to Podcast". When prompted, copy the URL http://popupchinese.com/feeds/custom/sinica into the box. If you'd like to download this mp3 directly from our site you can also grab it as a standalone mp3 file. Enjoy!