The Zhujiang Delta, as an economically developed area, has attracted large numbers of rural workers for many years. However, many small to middle-sized companies there have not been able to hire enough rural workers since early this year. For several dozen years, the invariably low wage levels in the Zhujiang Delta area have caused rural workers to move to the Yangtze River Delta, where they can earn a relatively higher income. However, this is only one facet of the problem. In fact, a serious problem lies in the Chinese government neglecting its duty to protect workers' rights.

On the surface, the move of rural workers from the low wages of the Zhujiang Delta to regions in the Yangtze River Delta, seems like just the behavior of a mobile labor force. However this has become an excuse for the local government to shift responsibility to the rapidly changing market, and ignore their long-standing failure to address serious problems that have arisen.

One such longstanding problem is discrimination. Under China's planned economy system, discrimination against farmers has been overlooked and the hat of "rural workers" has been put on an emerging working class. Rural workers are not treated the same as urban residents, and are given obviously inferior positions. Second is a lack of guaranteed benefits. Rural workers cannot be guaranteed the social security, employment opportunities, wage levels, or labor insurance that they are supposed to have.

A company is an economic entity, and pursuing maximum profit is a company's instinct. A company tends to lengthen working time and lower the wage level for workers, or rural workers, in an attempt to reduce costs. The government is an organization of public authority, so pursuing maximum fairness is a fundamental goal of the government. To harmoniously maintain social stability, the government must set fair game rules for both workers and companies to follow. But for quite a long time, the government, pursuing solely economic growth, has either intentionally or unintentionally, indulged business owners by allowing them to give low wages to and abuse the rights of the rural workers they employ. To put it simply, the growth of many businessmen’s wealth is directly proportional to the increase in what's being deprived from rural workers. The government should issue regulations to restrain companies’ management practices and policies, and simultaneously guarantee the basic rights and freedoms of these rural workers.

Rural workers' demands are not limited to wages levels. It must be fully realized that rural workers should fairly share in the fruits of social progress, and society should take off the “rural workers” hat, because these people are the new working class, and all their rights should be safeguarded. Currently, a mechanism to fairly protect all their rights has yet to be established. The fact that rural workers surged from the Zhujiang Delta to the Yangtze River Delta, on the one hand, means that they found a relatively better living environment in the Yangtze River Delta, but this certainly does not mean they have found acceptable living conditions. As of today, social inequality has not yet changed, and unification of the labor market and social security system has not yet been fully established. As such, the rural workers moving to the Yangtze River Delta from the Zhujiang Delta, suffer huge financial pressure as a disadvantaged group. By moving to the Yangtze River Delta, they have not found a better situation so much as picked the lesser of two evils.

After China’s reforms and open door policy for over 20 years, both the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people themselves have advocated and stipulated in the Chinese constitution to "respect and protect human rights," which should be considered a significant and historic opportunity to improve rural workers' status and their living conditions. Yet, little has been done. If the government works to provide public goods, but does not establish a fair environment, it has failed to fulfill its duty. If companies violate the rural workers’ basic rights, but the government does not carry out an investigation, then again, it has failed to fulfill its duty.