Dying for China’s economic miracle: migrant workers ravaged by lung disease, fighting to pay for their funerals
Lack of contract denies compensation to many, while slow response from local government means more could die before medical and financial help arrives
On a rainy summer day, 52-year-old Wang Zhaogang paused to catch his breath after every four or five steps. He was wrapped up against the elements, since even a common cold could be enough to kill him, and his laboured breath emitted a deep wheezing sound.
So frail that his heartbeat was visible beneath skin stretched across his rib cage, Wang, from Hunan province in central China, had lost 15kg (33lbs) over the previous year and weighed only 40kg. Still, he has travelled alone five times this year from his hometown in Sangzhi – one of the 10 poorest counties in China – to the southern city of Shenzhen to campaign for the city’s government to recognise and help workers like him.
Filled with resentment, he glared up at the city’s skyscrapers, which he had helped build from 2004 onwards – at the cost of his health. “We are treated like ants … not humans,” said Wang, gasping for air. “I sold my life to Shenzhen. If I had known the danger of pneumatic drilling, I would never have done the work, no matter how poor I am.”
Wang learned his days were numbered in May last year, when he found he has terminal stage-three silicosis – lung disease – linked to his years of exposure to silica dust on the job. Rather than quietly accept his fate, he has been petitioning the Shenzhen government for compensation.
It’s sad to say that many [poorer] local governments are just waiting for them to die
He is among more than 600 workers from Hunan alone seeking money for medical care and to support their families – a reflection of the forgotten human cost of turning Shenzhen, in Guangdong province, from a sleepy fishing village into a city with a gross domestic product of US$338 billion in 2017.
While Shenzhen celebrates 40 years since China’s national opening-up policy that gave rise to its success, the plight of workers who built its subway lines and landmarks underscores that labour protection remains a problem a decade after China introduced a law in 2008 requiring employers to issue contracts – and thus proof of employment – to their staff.
