Agreed. "Slave" labor may have been used too generally here.
Nonetheless, the PRC seems to have imported only those aspects of a Free-market that suit those in power, which therefore is not a Free market at all. I think we can both agree that the "collusion of government and business to the exclusion of the people" is a good working definition of a Facist State. For a Free Market to work efficiently the people, both the owners of the stores, shops and factories AND those that work in those businesses, the laborers, must be free to choose (see FREE TO CHOOSE by Nobel prize-winning Economist, Milton Friedman). When both sides of this equation are allowed to act and react freely towards one another is when the Market will work most efficiently.
Currently in China "The Communist Party" does not allow the free association of the people in ANY organization that is outside, and not sanctioned by, the Communist Party itself. There is coersion of the people that are caught in the grip of a group of individuals that meet in private to decide the fate of the country at a sea-side resort. From the Chinese Communist Party control over the "State-run" Catholic churches, to the placement of relatives in the newly created businesses, in a type of hereditary-succession, "The Party" does not want to give up its ultimate control of the country.
"Solidarity" in Poland was the result of the free-association of workers. The formation of an independent trade union in a communist country that did not allow any such group to be formed unless sanctioned by The Party was revolutionary. It was an alternate expression of the revolutionary "will-of-the-people" versus that sanction wholely claimed by "The Party" itself. I am still waiting for the formation of a single independent labor union in China that is not controlled ultimately by the Communist Party.
Yes, I understand China is changing, and any change involves dislocation and pain. Yes, the Communist rulers there, ever nervous over any hint of chaos and loss of control, are also allowing, and are responsible for, THAT verysame change. I have read that "The Party" is even beginning to allow the input of business leaders in the economic decisions that were once solely made by "The Party". These changes ARE good. But it would be better if the people had some input. In some respects the workers may as well be slaves.
Yes, this is a time of transition and things that were true yesterday may rapidly become false tomorrow, so rapid is the change. Still, my final comment then is half-jokingly directed at the people in China: "Workers of China unite. You have nothing to lose but your chains".