China said the number of people living in cities exceeded the rural population for the first time, a historic shift that experts said would put a strain on society and the environment. The change marks a turning point for China, which for centuries was a mainly agrarian nation but has witnessed a huge population shift to cities over the past three decades as people seek to benefit from rapid economic growth.

Apple Inc supplier Pegatron Corp's plant in Shanghai was rocked by an explosion over the weekend, the latest in a series of incidents that spotlights safety concerns at factories in China.

Protests have erupted over the last week in a wide range of industries and locations across China, indicating that worker unrest is far from confined to just the manufacturing heartland of the Pearl River Delta.

The death of Pan Jie, a 25-year-old auditor at the Shanghai branch of PricewaterhouseCoopers, last month ignited a vociferous debate in the Chinese media on the work pressures felt by young urban professionals.

For a long time it seemed to some that China's lack of independent labor unions was an advantage. Wages stayed low, and Chinese industry didn't have to worry about strike disruptions. This was always a disadvantage for workers. But now the costs of this strategy for employers and the government also are coming more sharply into focus, thanks to a four-day truck drivers' strike in Shanghai last month.

China’s only legal trade union organization, a tool of Communist Party control long scorned by workers as a shill for big business, is experimenting with a novel idea: speaking up for labor.

Hundreds of truck drivers staged protests in Shanghai’s port district this week, leading to clashes with the police and several arrests. The drivers, mostly independent operators from outside the city demanded an increase in their flat-fee haulage payment to offset rising fuel costs.

Chinese police arrested and broke up hundreds of protesters today in Shanghai. The demonstrators were truck drivers angry over high gas prices and the rising cost of doing business there.

The Guangdong authorities are considering a further increase in the minimum wage, after a 21 percent increase six months ago failed to resolve the province’s on-going labour shortage.

A third strike at a Honda components plant broke out on Wednesday 9 June, with workers again demanding substantial pay increases and the right to elect a genuinely representative trade union at the plant, Honda Lock, in Zhongshan, which employs 1,700 workers.