Risky business

Coming from a country like Switzerland with among the most well-insured and well-protected workers in the world, the situation of many manual laborers in China, even in the wealthy cities like Beijing or Shanghai, is precarious. Not only are there a lot of severe on-the-job accidents - the second largest cause of death in the big cities behind traffic-related deaths - there is also not much of a social safety net yet, with the exception of city workers. The government is gradually working on this, but there is obviously a long way to go, and in the meantime, the guys washing windows in Beijing are just hanging from ropes...

Only a fraction of Chinese are covered by social security protections (pensions, social security, health insurance, accident insurance...), mostly in the wealthier urban areas in the Eastern part of the country, and there is a big debate about the best social security model for China. A World Bank report in May 2005 on China's social security fund, says under its present model China needs another nine trillion Yuan, more than one trillion US dollars, to cover the social security in the periods from 2001 to 2075. A big problem is that China is aging and will see about 400 million senior citizens, 60 years of age or older, by the year 2030, which is equal to the total population of the entire European Union.