A U.S. official told CNN that there was no evidence to back up the rumors of the North Korean leader’s death. At the time, they said it’s hard to say for sure due to the country’s secrecy, but it was highly unlikely.

What did happen at the North Korean embassy then that caused such a ruckus in the first place? It apparently was a birthday party. The National Post is reporting that the large amount of cars all parked at the embassy were for the 70th birthday party of the late Kim Jong-Il. Chinese citizens were apparently not used to seeing so many people at the embassy and just assumed the worst.

Twitter has mostly stopped talking about Kim Jong-Un now that a real celebrity has died, but some people are still taking time out to make a few more observations.

[Lead image once again courtesy of the excellent Kim Jong-Un Looking At Things]

Images of factory worker abuse have been around since long before any of us were born. If you think about the industrial revolution in America, you will realize that the modern society we enjoy today was built in the backs of exploited factory workers. While it is true that this may not be a necessary evil, it is an evil many societies have had to endure in the name of building a stronger nation.

Remember when “made in Japan” conjured negative images in our heads? I do, and I don’t believe that is the case anymore. Today, Japan is highly regarded for its machinery and transportation exports. Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea have all followed suit and used sweatshop tactics to build their economies. Essentially these nations were hungry and wanted to grow. Some business is better than no business and revenue, regardless of how it’s generated, builds the infrastructure and social programs that characterize a developed nation.

In china citizens flock to employment agencies to except Foxconn jobs because they are not presented with many other viable options for earning a paycheck to feed their families and keep clothing on their backs. Hopefully, none of us want to see others suffer, but we have been blessed in this country because, our forefathers did the work for us. We have the government resources to protect us from employer abuse because, somewhere along the way, somebody sacrificed so we could have it.

Since 1979 when China decided to embraced capitalism nearly 600 million people have escaped starvation and poverty by choosing to take employment in sweatshop-like environments. A perfect example is the Chinese village of Shenzhen. They were one of the first areas to embrace China’s economic reforms and to begin growing the economy. Thirty years later it is a city of 10 million people and a hotbed for manufacturing jobs.

If we take a lesson from history we can conclude that China is progressing very quickly and we may soon begin to see breakthroughs in the way they do business. I think America has a habit of forcing our politics onto other nations before they are ready for them. Sometimes you just need to allow something the freedom to grow and choose its own path.

Consumers should realize that a forced change over in China will end in one of two ways. Either Apple will pull all of their contracts from China over the labor disputes and Chinese workers will be left with no jobs or Americans will have to suffer tremendous price increases. Is an iPod worth $800-$1200 to you? Will you pay $1600- $2500 for an iPad? That’s what manufacturing in developed nations costs and it will be passed on to the consumer.

Chinese Apple site Mic Gadget reports that on Monday, thousands of people looking for jobs lined up outside a labor office in the largest city in Henan province, all looking to be hired on at Foxconn.

They discuss what could be the draw of a Foxconn job:

Well, these people saw the job advertisement posted by the Zhengzhou government in the city which showed the salary at Foxconn’s Zhengzhou factory is 1650 yuan (US$261) for basic salary, and the salary would be increased to 2400 – 3200 yuan (US$379-$506) after the appraisal. What’s more, workers do not need to pay additional money for dormitory and food. Foxconn incorporates the food and housing allowance into the basic salary. So, this attracted thousands of young job seekers to deliver their resumes to the Foxconn representatives.

Apparently, the crowd was heavily swayed toward males and most had prior work experience. A smaller subset of the applicants were described as recent college grads.

Of course, the Apple manufacturer has been the subject of public scrutiny as of late regarding worker conditions inside its factories. Foxconn has been accused of worker abuses, including witholding pay, forcing long hours with no breaks, and providing unsafe conditions. One Chinese executive from a Foxconn parent company raised eyebrows by comparing his workers to animals. Then there are those horrific stories of suicides at the plants.

Apple has denied that they were aware of these abuses and have stated emphatically that they care about every worker in their supply chain. CEO Tim Cook said that he was “offended” by the allegations, saying “we care about every worker in our worldwide supply chain. Any accident is deeply troubling, and any issue with working conditions is cause for concern. Any suggestion that we don’t care is patently false and offensive to us.”

But it looks like Chinese workers are lining up in droves for work at the plants. One might think that this hints that conditions might not be as bad as some have reported, but Mic Gadget has some pretty harsh words about the Foxconn factories:

The long lines at the labour agency may have surprised some, considering the harsh working conditions at Foxconn’s factories. No matter how poor the working conditions are, we can still see lots of Chinese willing to work at the hell factory to assemble the tech gadgets we’re using today. God bless them.

Foxconn is probably ramping up hiring to deal with the production of new Apple devices like the iPhone 5. Earlier, we told you about an online petition about protecting Chinese workers that has been gaining a hell of a lot of steam on Change.org. With all of the recent news about worker conditions in these factories, it’s safe to say that many Apple lovers will look at the iPhone 5 in a way that they probably didn’t look at their original iPhone.

In just a few days, the petition has amassed 146,000+ signatures as of the writing of this article, and it’s progressing at an astonishing rate.

Dear Apple,

You know what’s awesome? Listening to NPR podcasts through an Apple Airport, playing through a Mac laptop, while puttering about the kitchen. Do you know the fastest way to replace awesome with a terrible knot in your stomach? Learning that your beloved Apple products are made in factories where conditions are so bad, it’s not uncommon for workers to permanently lose the use of their hands.

For awhile now, Apple has been plagued by a pretty disturbing PR crisis. Conditions inside some of their foreign manufacturing plants have been called into question – especially factories like Foxconn in China. In the past year, we’ve heard reports of mass suicides of workers at Foxconn, and just this month we reported on a mass suicide threat that was just barely avoided.

Just a couple of weeks ago, the chairman of Hon Hai, parent company to Foxconn, raised some eyebrows when he referred to the workers under his management as “animals.”

These foreign factories have been accused of numerous abuses, including refusal of pay, a lack of breaks, and improper instruction regarding toxic chemicals. A former Foxconn manager recently spoke out, saying that “Apple never cared about anything other than increasing product quality and decreasing production cost.”

For his part, Apple CEO Tim Cook has publicly refuted these claims, saying that he takes offense to the notion that he doesn’t care about all the workers under the Apple umbrella:

As a company and as individuals, we are defined by our values. Unfortunately some people are questioning Apple’s values today, and I’d like to address this with you directly. We care about every worker in our worldwide supply chain. Any accident is deeply troubling, and any issue with working conditions is cause for concern. Any suggestion that we don’t care is patently false and offensive to us. As you know better than anyone, accusations like these are contrary to our values. It’s not who we are.

Nevertheless, here’s what is demanded by the petition:

Here are two simple asks (basically taken from the end of the TAL report) that could make a profound difference in the lives of the men and women in your factories and others like them:

First, in regards to the worker traumas described in the story, ranging from suicide attempts to the people losing the use of their hands from repetitive motion injuries, we ask that Apple release a worker protection strategy for new product releases, which are the instances when injuries and suicides typically spike because of the incredible pressure to meet quotas timed to releases.

Second, since the TAL story aired, Apple has announced that the Fair Labor Association will be monitoring its suppliers. Awesome step. Please publish the results of FLA’s monitoring, including the NAMES of the suppliers found to have violations and WHAT those violations are, so that there is transparency around the monitoring effort.

Please make these changes immediately, so that each of us can once again hold our heads high and say, “I’m a Mac person.”

150,000 signatures in a few days is a highly successful petition. It seems that the issue isn’t just going to go away. It’s hard for people to look at their devices that they rely on and love so much and think about the possible suffering that went into their construction.

But the real question when it comes to this issue: would people really change their purchasing habits? What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

[Image Courtesy cultofmac]

Now shocking news from China says, their air quality is terrible! How could that be? Apparently, China has been spreading propoganda about the air quality and its’ improvement for years! Recent pressures have forced officials to face the truth and at least begin addressing the problem.

It is also worthy to note that there’s a discrepancy, according to Chinese officials, over standards of measure, to determine if China even has a pollution problem. Perhaps the picture below will shed some light on the situation:

Seems very nice! The illustrious Ministry of Environmental Protection in China finally noticed this horrible smog and has made the recommendation that about 120 of China’s major cities should begin to monitor the smog by next year. Way to take action! By monitoring the pollution it will most certainly subside.

Just last week Beijing started publishing readings of the smog, which they have been taking hourly. An official at the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (a Beijing-based nonprofit) credits the public with recognizing the problem, as it appears most at the institution have been robbed of their sight.

Apparently the smog is so thick and concentrated that it can become imbedded in people’s lungs and cause a variety of respiratory complications including death. The American Embassy began monitoring the levels and alerting the public about the pollution some time ago.

This angered the Chinese government, who politely asked the embassy to stop, and lie about it for them, if they could. The embassy declined.

Supposedly, China has been making progress on reducing air pollution, but that is their own claim, not an impartial party’s. The World Bank mentions, in an unreleased report, Northern China’s pollution levels exceed America’s limits by five to six times.

Want China Times is reporting that the chairman of Hon Hai, parent company of Foxconn, invited the director of the Taipei Zoo, Chin Shih-chien, to talk about the management of animals. Foxconn, if you remember, is the company that manufactures all those pretty iPads, Xbox 360s and Nintendo Wiis.

“Hon Hai has a workforce of over one million worldwide and as human beings are also animals, to manage one million animals gives me a headache,” Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou said.

Gou invited the zoo director to speak at the company’s annual review meeting. He also asked all of the general managers to listen to the lecture. He apparently wanted them to learn how to manage a wide variety of animals and their various quirks.

While Chin was lecturing, sharing his experiences at the zoo, Gou was attentive and listening carefully. He then asked Chin to put himself in his shoes as chairman which reportedly garnered laughter from the managers.

Even if the method was unorthodox and demeaning, Want China Times says that Gou was sincere as his company faces a crisis with handling their workers.

Foxconn has had trouble in the past with worker suicides and worker threats that even reportedly shut down the manufacturing of Xbox 360s during the mass suicide threat last week.

Want China Times says that China is no longer the cheap labor camp it once was and that companies like Hon Hai and Foxconn will have to work on bettering their work conditions for those workers who won’t take low wages and terrible conditions just to improve their family’s condition.

With more and more people in the West becoming aware of the sacrifices and conditions that people go through to make shiny new iPads and other gadgets, those changes may come sooner than later.

Reuters is reporting that the use of microblogging (i.e. Twitter) has quadrupled in 2011 compared to 2010. A government Internet think tank said today that nearly half of all Chinese Internet users are taking to the near-instant service to gather news and spread views.

China’s version of Twitter, Weibo, has two popular platforms being run in the country by Sina Corp and Tencent Holdings. Both firms claim to have more than 200 million users accessing their service.

Last year was a huge year for the service as users took to Weibo to discuss events such as the Wenzhou high-speed train crash in July.

The rise in the use of these services caused a stir in the government and they feared that they may be losing their control of information. This led to the government regulating the services by requiring all users to register with their real names.

The new rules didn’t deter users from taking to the service though. The total number of Weibo users rose 296 percent to 249.9 million in 2011. The data came from the China Internet Network Information Center which showed that half of the Chinese Internet population uses Weibo.

The same group said that China’s Internet population had risen to 513 million users. That makes up 38.3 percent of the population is on the Internet.

To put things into perspective, the U.S. population is projected to be at 312 million this month. The U.S. had 239 million Internet users for 77.3 percent of the population in 2010.

Question: What gets Apple fans really livid? Announcing that they can’t buy the newest iPhone.

This was the social experiment that unfolded today in Beijing, where Apple had planned to launch the iPhone 4S to China. But after getting a little stage fright due to the enormity of the eager crowd, Apple pulled the plug on the launch two hours before the release and postponed the release of the iPhone.

Tsk, tsk, Apple. You may giveth the iPhone, but you may certainly not taketh away.

The Daily Mail reports that after the crowd was informed that Apple would not be selling them the iPhone 4S, people took up my personally favorite way of expressing their outrage by throwing eggs at the Apple Store. Check out footage of the outraged would-be Apple customers in the following video provided by Reuters:

The iPhone 4S was apparently still sold in other stores throughout China today where crowds were presumably less intense and less egg-armed.

In a statement released to Reuters yesterday, Apple said that it has halted sales of the iPhone 4S altogether in Beijing and Shanghai “to ensure the safety of our customers and our employees.” Perhaps The following YouTube video allegedly of the “chaos” at the Apple Store although I think it may be satire:

This additional video, though, does show somebody, here described as a security guard, getting smacked around by some members of the crowd:

Mic Gadget is saying that a fight did break out but that it was between scalpers who got pissed about their lack of iPhone 4Ss to hawk. The New York Times is reporting that “an army of scalpers hired migrant workers to snap up products” such as the iPhone so that the scalpers can then flip the product on the black market.

Honestly, we’ll probably never know really how all this trouble jumped off in Beijing, but whoever started the mini-riot redeems one imperishable maxim: a few bad apples spoil the bunch.

That’s just in case there was any confusion from the Wall Street Journal report “Google Softens Tone on China”.

It’s hard to believe it’s been two years since Google threatened to pull out of China, before ultimately redirecting Google.cn to its Hong Kong site. Google assures us the redirect will remain in place.

It’s not as if Google has completely abandoned China. The company reportedly has over 500 employees there (though it was closer to 700 before Google pulled search out). According to the Wall Street Journal now, however, Google is looking to ramp up its presence in the country, focusing on products that don’t bring censorship from the Chinese government – especially Android. The report says Google is hiring more engineers, salespeople and product managers in the country.

The publication interviewed Google’s top exec in Asia, Daniel Alegre, who reportedly says one of the company’s goals is to introduce the Android Market to the Chinese market, in addition to beefing up its product search service.

Google has been pretty up front about the need to remain in China since pulling the search engine out of the country. Alan Eustace, Google’s SVP of Engineering Research called China the “heart” of the future of the Internet in late 2010.

It does appear that Google considers China to be an incredibly important market, and the search censorship issue is an unfortunate obstacle, particularly as Google integrates its products with one another. The more Google expands in China, the greater this problem could become.

Kotaku is reporting that on January 2, over 300 employees at a Foxconn plant in Wuhan, China threatened to throw themselves off the roof of the building in a mass suicide. The workers manufacture the Xbox 360 console.

According to the Chinese anti-government Web site China Jasmine Revolution, the workers were denied compensation they were promised.

On January 2, the workers reportedly asked for a raise. They were told they could either keep their job with no pay raise or quit and get compensation. Obviously, many quit to get the compensation. The agreement was supposedly terminated and the workers never received their payments.

The mayor of Wuhan was called to the scene to talk the group down. On January 3, the group decided not to jump which ended the whole affair.

Suicides were a major problem in 2010 with Foxconn installing nets to prevent suicides at some of its facilities.

This story brings Foxconn and overworked factory employees in China to the forefront again. In our mad dash to get the latest gadgets and have a steady supply of them, we forget to think about those in other parts of the world that make these devices. Hopefully, better employee treatment practices will soon be implemented so everybody can be happy.