labor rights - AFL-CIO accepts invitation to China

One of China's fiercest criticasters, the US federation of trade unions AFL CIO, has accepted an invitation of state councilor Wu Yi to come to China, writes AFP.Relations between the international trade unions and China have been frozen since the events at Tiananmen Square in June 1989. While most of the other international organizations have picked up relations since then, the international trade union movement has mainly criticized China from the sidelines for workers' rights abuses.
The international trade union movement has been accepting other countries with in there eyes wrong labor right policies, but has maintained the ban of China.
Accepting the invitation by the AFL-CIO does not mean that those relations can be restored very smooth. Its membership fears competition from China and has been accusing this country of using unfair labor practices for unequal competition. Those arguments have been dismissed by both economists and the Bush administration.

There are dozens of reasons why this effort might be failing, not in the last place the lack of understanding in the US about how a country like China works. In the past few weeks I was confronted again with a few shocking illustrations of the lack of background information. The current scandal about the mistreatment of the Iraqi prisoners is only the top of an iceberg of ignorance.