You didn't answer the question...why interested in Gamasutra?

I'm not sure I would say that Chinese workers are the most ruthlessly exploited. The exploitation tends to happen in Guangdong... at least, Chinese people think that's where it happens. Its probably a very small proportion of the workforce and in absolute terms, probably not more than in, say, Mexico (I guess this depends on how you define "ruthlessly exploited".

I would say, however, that workers in the Guangdong region have far less allies and legal resources to help them, so their road to improvement is less clear.

And one more thing...these riots happenning now (in the NY Times article) are not about workers...they are about peasants. In Guangdong there is worker unrest. But it seems throughout much of China there is peasant unrest due to land seizures and perceived extreme environmental exploitation. These issues are less WTO/globalization issues, and more about China's development and modernizaton process.

And peasant unrest is much acarrier to Beijing

"There will no doubt be lots of jobs for Americans who can speak Chinese in the not-too-distant future, for example."

That sounds good for me. Hope its true.

Two points...most of the engineers that graduate from Chinese schools have very little talent. I have heard (this is just what I heard!) that most Engineers study civil and mechanical engineering here. I my point is, you cannot compare engineering graduates in China to the US. Especially when it comes to R&D

The closing point of your article is that you believe that the Chinese government is more sincere about developing its country and "human talent" than the US government. Well...of course. The US, in general, invests less tax money into the national community commons than most countries in the developing and developed world. I'm not sure it always was like this though. We depend more on individual and corporate initiative to develop ourselves and our nation. The Chinese have a different philosophy about that.

"China is the world's manufacturer because they do not enforce environmental or labor standards."

Not true. Except in Canton province where most of the Hong Kong and Taiwanese companies are. Labor standards are strictly enforced in most areas.

"Nineteen of the top twenty most polluted cities in the world are in China."

Primarilly because of coal-burning energy production. Not directly related to manufacturing.

"Labor safety laws are non-existent."

Not true at all.

"Laborers are routinely denied wages they have rightfully earned."

Again, primarilly in certain industries in one geographic area.

"Age discrimination is common with job seekers over age 35 (or married) regularly turned away."

In China, old people have a lot more respect and less discrimation than in the US.

"Event the meager laws that do exist are not enforced due to deeply entrenched corruption."

Umm...again...that much different from the US?

"I.e., the high dollar makes it easier for us to buy than to sell, directly contributing to the trade deficit as a whole. I've heard quite a few claims that China is inflating the dollar, mostly through buying up bonds and such, although I can't vouch for the extent of their influence; the dollar has been a strong currecy for decades."

They would not be buying up so many bonds if the US government was not running such a huge FISCAL deficit. So they inflate the dollar...by paying for our war in Iraq.

In any case, its obvious that if the currency was to float freely, it would just hurt the US more. This is such a BS issue.