The World’s Sweatshop

China is supplying the world with a great variety of cheap products, including exports of pharmaceutical medications to US partner companies. Yet this article argues that some of the so-called cheap drugs Americans enjoy carry a hidden price tag that is difficult to put a dollar figure on – human life. Hisun, a Chinese company with US government approval to produce medications in cooperation with Eli Lilly and another US-based company, is under investigation for evading environmental regulations and endangering the lives of its workers. As this article reports, one Hisun worker's wife gave birth to a baby with stubs instead of fingers, and a recent attempt to cover up the company's dangerous practices led to the death of two workers. With no official recognition of the problems forthcoming from any of the involved parties, the author concludes that "Hisun's case suggests that the enormous human and environmental toll of China's rapid development is not just an unintended side effect but also an explicit choice of business executives and officials who tolerate deaths and degradation as the inevitable price of progress." – YaleGlobal