China has become the world’s factory floor and is a major manufacturing platform for brand-name buyers around the world.China’s huge and hard-working labor pool is one reason for this positive development.But there are persistent and increasingly contentious problems with regard to factory working conditions and labor protection.These problems include occupational health and safety deficiencies，irregularities in payment of wages and overtime，labor insurance and workplace injury compensation non-compliance，and low quality of life for migrant factory workers，and other problems.

The brands that buy，the factories that supply and the government agencies that monitor share responsibility for correcting these problems，which are expanding as the factory labor force grows.Most brands require their suppliers to adhere to Codes of Conduct and the Labor Law and other relevant regulations.But too often those brands do not provide technical or financial assistance to enable suppliers to better comply.Brands also make it difficult for suppliers to comply by ordering good with increasingly shorter lead times and engaging in a cheapest price “race to the bottom”.Many suppliers are simply unable to comply due to lack of resources and experience while other suppliers deliberately avoid complying to maximize profits by keeping multiple books and engaging in other fraudulent practices.Local government labor bureaus，safety production bureaus and labor unions too frequently are unable or reluctant to enforce existing labor regulations because they lack the human and financial resources，and because they are concerned too strict enforcement will drive away investment of result in higher costs that will lead to terminated contracts and lost jobs.

All of these parties are as much a part of the solution as they are a part of the problem.To break out of the current unproductive cycle of mutual criticism，a new paradigm needs to be created.This proposed model would include：a）brand-supplier-government cooperation to improve factory working conditions through a pooling of resources and regular information exchanges；b）delivery of a range of legal，health and safety，education and compensation services and education for workers by capable Chinese non-government agencies；c）bottom-up service and protection project planning with active worker participation；d）an emphasis on peer-to-peer worker education and management training projects；e）a Chinese network of intermediary support institutions to assist the primary service deliverers.All of these are feasible，as projects in the Pearl River Delta have shown.