The global construction boom in China focuses on dubious work practices: NPR

A Brooklyn jury heard testimony earlier this month of virtual slavery – 14 hours a day without pay and threats of physical violence – for Chinese workers building Chinese government buildings in the United States.

Federal prosecutors explained how Dan Zhong, director of China Rilin Construction Group and former Chinese diplomat, had forced workers to help build Chinese public facilities, including the Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC by confiscating their travel documents and compelling them to make sure that they would not leave.

He then locked up the workers in squalid housing in New Jersey, "trapped by guards who would track them down and bring them back when they escaped," said William Sweeney, deputy director of the FBI, in a statement. communicated.

Zhong was convicted earlier this week by a federal court in New York for using forced labor. His co-accused, Landong Wang, is currently a fugitive.

The case highlights a practice of Chinese construction companies, which have long relied on an informal system of labor subcontractors who charge high recruitment fees to workers for lucrative work at home. foreign. This increases the risk of exporting poor work practices globally, according to labor experts.

At the same time, these companies are increasingly looking for projects abroad, with an economic slowdown and tighter regulations hampering projects on their territory. They find many opportunities. The China Belt and Road Initiative, launched in 2013, aims to finance and build infrastructure and commercial projects in more than 60 countries.

"Many Chinese companies fail to adapt their practices to local laws when they operate abroad." The Chinese government has policies that require local rules to be followed, but most of them do not. They do not have the slightest authority, "says Aaron Halegua, a lawyer and researcher at New York University School. of the law.

China Rilin is not the only Chinese company related to a US federal court case this year.

The MCC public group, Gold Mantis, a company listed in Shenzhen, and Hong Kong-based Imperial Pacific, are being sued by seven Chinese construction workers in Saipan, which is part of the American Commonwealth. Workers claim that companies have tricked them into paying high recruitment fees in exchange for a well-paying job at a China-funded casino on the island.

Instead, they and other workers claim to have been paid less than the minimum wage and subjected to unsafe working conditions. None of the three companies returned a request for comment.

"The construction site was messy, unlike the other Chinese construction projects I've worked on." Garbage and equipment were left around the site (…) People often worked without safety harnesses, "recalls Ren Zhijie, who was among hundreds of Chinese workers. to build the casino.

He returned to China after the FBI raid on the site after the death of a worker in 2017 and is still waiting for his recruitment fees to be reimbursed him.

Zhong, the director of China Rilin's US subsidiary, was tasked by the Chinese Foreign Ministry with helping to build various state facilities, such as China's UN mission in New York and consulates in the United States.

For reasons of national security, China and the United States allow each other to bring their own personnel to build diplomatic facilities. However, FBI investigators said Zhong had forced Rilin's employees to do other unpaid work, such as preparing meals for him and working in commercial buildings in New York.

Failure to comply with the obligations imposed by Chinese companies operating abroad leads to a double standard, said Halegua: "These workers lived in a residential community and worked alongside American workers, but the contracts they signed in China, security deposits and threats to punish anyone who tries to escape creates a climate of fear and coercion. "

Zhong's president, China Rilin's president, Wang Wenliang, has imposed himself as one of the main operating ports located along the Chinese border with North Korea and by the construction .

In addition to building embassies in the United States, Wang has also made a political breakthrough in America.

Although Wang is a Chinese citizen, his status as a permanent legal resident in the United States allowed him to donate to US organizations. That included $ 120,000 for the 2013 governorship nomination campaign of former Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe through a subsidiary of China Rilin and a $ 2 million pledge to the Foundation Clinton.

In 2014, Wang awarded a foundation grant to a major Washington think tank, the Center for Strategic International Studies, to launch its geostrategy institute Zbigniew Brzezinski. On one occasion, Wang's lawyer, Mark Feng, was Brzezinski's research assistant at the Johns Hopkins Faculty of International Studies, said H. Andrew Schwartz, communications officer at CSIS, in a statement. a statement.

"Neither Dr. Brzezinski nor CSIS had anything to do with Rilin's commercial activities and had never been asked to do anything about commercial activities. (…) We did not no contact with them for more than three years, "the statement said. CSIS Director General John Hamre met with Wang three times, but only to discuss Sino-US relations.

However, Wang's fortune has fallen in recent years. In 2017, he was one of 45 legislators dismissed from the Chinese parliament as a result of a massive vote buying scandal. Shortly after, the Dandong Port Group, of which Wang is the largest shareholder, has defaulted on over $ 150 million in debt and has since blocked assets of $ 422 million due to loan disputes. .

In 2016, the Hurun Rich Report ranked Wang 289th among the richest Chinese. the following year, ForbesThe Billionaires Index has estimated its fortune at $ 1.2 billion. He made no list in 2018.