I never believed that the plastic ban caused bag giant Huaqiang Plastics Co. Ltd.'s closing. I thought the company was an attractive deal for potential buyers. It had a lot to offer: good market, established customers, and all-ready production.

I was right.

Huaqiang had two production bases: Suiping and Luohe. Suiping's former management, together with some previous customers, bought the Suiping operation and renamed it Huiqiang.

The new company's opening ceremony was April 18, according to China's Economic Focus. Huiqiang is currently running 100 machines and making 30 metric tons of bags a month. It also plans to expand the current workforce of 1,000 in the near future.

Government officials at Suiping played an important role in facilitating the deal, out of interest in creating and retaining local employment as well as benefits in other aspects of the local economy. Most management has stayed with the company, as well as many workers.

But many former employees of Huaqiang are unhappy with their layoff packages. Since Huiqiang doesn't inherit Huaqiang's labor relations problems, the workers will have a long and hard battle to fight with the former owner.

China's new labor contract law is supposed to protect long-term employees with open-ended contracts. Many think that's reintroducing permanent positions, which existed in state-owned enterprises during China's era of planned economy. But no positions are permanent anymore, as businesses today are market-oriented and not guaranteed to last forever. An open-ended contract -- as a format -- only protects the opportunity to work in the same postition within the same organization. The specific terms are vital. But the Huaqiang workers are not being protected by the new law anyway, as the company timed its closure before the law came into effect.

Now, is the change of ownership a convenient way to get around the labor laws?