Many know that some laws in China aren't well enforced -- or enforced at all. But in many cases, the root lies in the laws themselves. The plastic bag ban is a perfect example. During the six months between the announcement of the new directive and the actual enforcement, the government simply let the following problems and issues take care of themselves:

1. Enforcement at farmers markets, where customers are most price-sensitive. I mentioned this problem in my January 28 column, China faces hurdles enforcing bag ban. According to Chinese local media, most farmers markets across the nation are still giving away free, ultrathin plastic bags. With double-digit inflation, consumers try to stretch their money at farmers markets versus stores and supermarkets. Farmers markets are also in higher need of plastic bags than supermarkets and other retailers, as food items in the former are not packaged. Is it smart to impose plastic bag fees here at this point in time?

2. Applicability. American fast food chain KFC was "caught" by some local media providing free plastic bags for carry-out orders. However, China's Ministry of Commerce previously exempted restaurants and drugstores from the ban. But a plastics trade group was quoted by media as saying the ban does apply to some restaurants including KFC. Such misinformation adds more frustration to an already confusing policy.

3. Pricing. Authorities have stressed that retailers must sell plastic bags for more than they cost. But there's no further instruction on pricing. The cost of plastic bags also bears much ambiguity: Should the price include additional operational costs incurred during the transition from old bags to new? Or should the charge be based on the price on the invoice? Furthermore, what agency is going to regulate the charge of plastic bags at stores? Dayang reported the most expensive plastic bags in Shenzhen are 19 times the cost of the cheapest. China News Agency said that bag prices vary widely in Beijing. Are retailers being encouraged to make profits on plastic bags? Is there a limit on how much a carrier bag costs?

4. Existing ultrathin bags. If they are not allowed to be circulated and used, shouldn't the government develop a mechanism to collect and recycle them? Right now, cities are dumping ultrathin bags in rural areas, where living standards are lower and law enforcement weaker.

5. Produce bags. Chinese media have also reported that the use of produce bags has skyrocketed since June 1. Beijing Times said some consumers steal produce bags for home use, and retailers have turned a blind eye because they don't want to deal with it.

However, even with all the issues, stores have reported a significant drop in their usage of plastic bags over the first two days of the ban. Beijing Business said some large supermarkets reported that they now use only 5 percent of the plastic bags that they used prior to the ban. Plastic bag makers should continue to watch the market responses.

The first week of China's enforcement of the plastic bag ban -- or, as some prefer, "restrictive policies" -- has been a little chaotic. A pregnant woman in her second trimester was actually injured and hospitalized by store employees in a dispute over a U.S. 3-cent plastic bag.

The woman, Ms. Zhang, was shopping with her sister, who wanted to purchase two packs of cosmetic facial masks and turned down the store's plastic bag at the store check out counter. The cashier insisted the items be put in a 0.20 yuan carrier bag. The two women couldn't make sense of the unreasonable policy and started to leave, when the cashier pointed at their backs, accusing them of being cheap. The Zhang sisters felt humiliated and turned around to argue. A reporter from Oriental Today said the store surveillance video showed that a female store manager got physical with the sisters and hit them with a walkie-talkie. As a result, Ms. Zhang was hospitalized with a head injury.

Apparently, the customer is not always right in China. The Zhang sisters were basically bullied by the store. There's a lot to be said about the Chinese service industry and consumers' rights in general, but in this case, the poorly established and enforced plastic bag ban deserves some of the blame.

Why do I say that? Because the government has put so much emphasis on "plastic bags must be at a charge" and "retailers must sell bags for more than they cost," that the point of the ban -- environmental protection -- is being tossed aside and, instead, empowers retailers over consumers.

In this environment, stores abuse their power and harm customers' benefits, not to mention their well-being, as was the case for Ms. Zhang.

Much publicity has been made on the new bag production standards and inspection methods, but there's no official instruction on how the retail industry should enforce the ban. That's why the store in Ms. Zhang' case dared to force the purchase of a plastic bag when the customer preferred no bag at all -- a much more eco-friendly option than buying a bag. The poorly explained and misinformed policy provides a perfect loophole for retailers to take advantage and profit from the sale of bags, completely ignoring the ban’s mission in the first place: to reduce the use of plastic bags.

If you've been to China and made some friends, you'll know that Chinese friends are nosy. They ask about your salary outright. My friends in China love www.salary.com and they use it compare their own income to their counterparts in the States.

I always tell them that the less labor there is to a job, the less of a gap in income between the two countries. Investment bankers in Shanghai get paid as much as their counterparts in the U.S. But injection press operators and street sweepers in China get paid much less than their American counterparts. And those labor-intensive jobs have been filled by migrant workers in the past three decades when the labor-cost advantage enabled China to attract foreign investment and prosper as an export-led nation.

But China may have come to the point where its hiring model for manufacturing and low-end service industries is in need of an overhaul. Maybe manufacturing jobs will eventually have to be localized and pay more.

That way, the kind of tragedy that struck Shenzhen-based plastics recycler Longfei when a fire broke out and killed 15 migrant workers sleeping in a factory attic won't happen again.

That way, there won't be the transportation frenzy like the one this past winter when snowstorms hit southern China just as millions of migrant workers tried to go home before the Chinese New Year.

That way, a natural disaster won't torture so many more elsewhere -- right now, many of the families of the migrant workers who were employed in Chengdu when last month's earthquake and subsequent aftershocks struck are drenched in sorrow; many migrant workers who are from Chengdu but were working in other locations also are suffering, because when the tragedy hit, they were not with their families. What can be more heartbreaking than that?

I can't say if I agree with Zuisetsu Su's prediction. But for quite a while, I've been wondering how long China's migrant labor-based economic boom can last.

There are plenty of figures, models and analysis from economists out there. I just happen to believe that China's migrant labor waves will die down as a result of what's changing in people's minds.

I'm talking about values and beliefs.

Among the emerging economies, be it India, Vietnam or South America, has any other country seen anything as phenomenal as China's population of 100 million migrant workers who work out of town all year round?

Most of them work laborer jobs that local city residents wouldn't want to take. These adults work at least six days a week, eat at the factory-run dining hall and sleep on bunk beds with dorm mates. They only see their spouses and kids once a year, around the Chinese New Year when they return home for the holiday. With their humble wages they will never be able to afford a house in the city nor realize a costly education for their kids because, being migrant workers, they are non-residents. Therefore, year after year, they never dream of settling down. They work hard and spend little during the year; they bring savings home in the winter to support their family's life in the rural areas.

Many Western friends asked me: "How do these migrant workers manage to keep their marriage and family intact?" I don't know how to answer that. I guess when one struggles to fill the stomach, other needs are pushed back. Migrant workers' lifestyle seems so against human nature. And to me, it's simply not right.

The awareness of life values has awakened in China along with the rising gross domestic product and living standards. The young generation in rural and inland areas would rather stay home; and more local manufacturing is starting in those regions. Those who leave town do so to change the path of their lives. They want to stay and blend in to city life.

Hence the human resources challenge currently facing China. On the one hand, millions of college graduates can't find jobs; on the other hand, factories have a hard time finding laborers.

I was chatting with Zuisetsu Su -- an executive at Japanese automation equipment maker Harmo Co. Ltd.'s Shanghai branch office on the last day of Chinaplas. We first talked about the market's reaction to China's labor cost hikes; then he went on with a thought-provoking personal projection of China's future.

"Labor shortages will end in a few years," he said. I disagreed, pointing out that wages continue to rise with strong legislative backup from the government; many middle-aged migrant workers are returning for good to their hometowns; and young people in the inland regions are not as enthusiastic about the lifestyle of a migrant worker.

That's exactly where the problems are, Su said. He was referring to the geographical imbalance of China's economy, with its clusters of manufacturing around a small number of large cities and ports.

By 2010, manufacturing will be more spread out across China, narrowing the gaps between regions, Su said. He believes the current manufacturing hotspots will see factories shift to areas with sufficient and affordable labor resources.

"What do you think is sustaining the extremely high real housing prices in Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen?" Condominiums in midtown Shanghai sell for at least 20,000 yuan per square meter (about US$265 per square foot).

It's the supply-demand relation of clustered population and limited space. Just like what happened in Tokyo in the 1990s, Su said, Shanghai and Beijing will also see their real estate bubbles burst soon. "That will bring down prices all over the board."

A Beijing native, Su moved to Tokyo as a teenager and lived there for 14 years before relocating to Shanghai.

Heavily dependent on imported oil and petrochemical products, Vietnam is joining the club of bio-based plastics. Tien Thanh Co. Ltd. in Ho Chi Ming City is marketing plastic items made out of wheat or maize flour, a report in the Viet Nam News said.

The product line seems to consist of boxes and cups that are said to decompose in wet environments in 102 days. They cost 40-50 percent more than their conventional plastic counterparts.

The caveat, as I see it, is that the humid tropical nation in Southeast Asia is home to agriculture products such as rice, soybeans and sugar cane, but wheat and maize are not primary crops and the production is limited. Meantime, the soaring food prices in Vietnam will have a great impact on the supply and cost of domestic and imported wheat and corn. The domestic market size for bio-plastic products is also minimal.

With the apparent roadblocks, the concept of corn-based plastic may remain more symbolic than practical for a while.

To cope with the ever-rising prices of plastic raw materials, processors are looking for ways to use less resin in the same product.

Newell Rubbermaid Inc., for one, is using more additives such as calcium carbonate and tweaking product designs. "We're taking a look at our products and redesigning them," Ray Johnson, Rubbermaid's president of global manufacturing and supply chain was quoted as saying in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

A picture on the AJC Web page demonstrates how drastically storage containers have been slimmed down.

According to Johnson, plastic currently accounts for merely 10-12 percent of costs, compared to 25 percent prior to the changes. For a container maker, that sounds really impressive.

I don't know how many consumers have noticed the thinning trend of plastic products and how they take it. I guess it's good for the environment and easy on the wallet. But as packaged water bottles turn from rigid to semi-flexible, I miss the feel of holding a solid and sturdy container of beverage. At home, I've started to pour my spring water from its soft bottle into ceramic cups. It's my little pet peeve, but I hope to make the experience of drinking water less "disposable."

The U.S. Department of Commerce has reached a decision on a dumping and subsidization investigation of laminated woven sacks from China.

In a June 19 release, the International Trade Administration said the government determined that Chinese producers/exporters have sold laminated woven sacks in the United States at 64.3 to 91.7 percent less than normal value and received net countervailable subsidies ranging from 29.5 to 352.8 percent.

That's preliminary success for the petitioners, the Laminated Woven Sack Committee and its individual members: Bancroft Bag Inc. (La.); Mid-America Packaging LLC (Ohio); Coating Excellence International LLC (Wis.); Polytex Fibers Corp. (Texas); and Hood Packaging Corp. (Miss.).

The International Trade Administration will issue its final injury determination on or about July 31. Depending on the ITC's findings on the imports' injury to the domestic industry, the government will decide whether or not to issue anti-dumping and countervailing duty orders.

How far can tax policies go in reducing society's use of plastic shopping bags? Consumers in Ireland have a story to tell.

Ireland introduced a plastic bag tax in 2002, and consumers rapidly cut their average use of plastic shopping bags from 328 to 21, according to the Independent News.

The Irish government decided last year to raise the tax to further discourage shoppers from buying plastic bags. As a result, usage of plastic shopping bags declined from 120 million in 2006 to 100 million in 2007. But the government collected 22 million euros of plastic bag taxes last year, compared to 18 million euros in 2006. "The taxes end up becoming revenue-raising measures," Labour's Environment spokeswoman Joanna Tuffy was quoted in the report.

Chinese consumers are also paying for their plastic shopping bags. But since they are paying retailers instead of the government, it's hard, if not impossible, to find out the nationwide spending on plastic bags. Plus, the money raised in China probably won't be used for eco-friendly purposes, unlike the Irish program. The Irish government, however, is unable to provide a specific breakdown of the use of the plastic bag tax funds because they are mixed in with funds from the landfill levy.

The sin list of plastic bags just got longer. On top of everything else, they can affect celebrity athletes' performance -- at least according to Australian soccer player, Mark Schwarzer.

Schwarzer received a yellow card in the June 14 game where his team, the Socceroos, won 3-1 over Qatar in Doha for alleged time-wasting, reported the Sydney Morning Herald.

But the heroic athlete said he wasn't wasting time. All he did was try to deal with a plastic bag blown into his goalmouth.

"There was a big plastic bag sitting in the middle of the goal, and I asked the referee if I could move it and he said yes. As I came back and placed the ball down he gave me a yellow card," Schwarzer was quoted as saying.

I wouldn't blame him if Schwarzer decided to join the anti-plastic-bag crowd now. Thanks to that plastic bag, he'll miss the World Cup qualifier against China.

My colleague Frank Esposito's column Plastics demand Rx for resin headaches highlighted a few important facts: 1) resin price spikes, 2) weaker dollar, and 3) increased exports to Asia. He rightly attributed the growing exports to the weaker dollar. And I'm here drawing an additional line between the resin price hikes and the weaker dollar.

Yes, if you are looking for something to blame for the resin prices, don't forget the greenback.

Fundamentally, the depreciating dollar has fueled oil and natural gas prices, which impacts the production cost of derivative plastic materials. As former Federal Reserve economist David T. King pointed out in a Wall Street Journal article: "The collapse of the dollar exchange rate, alone, explains at least half of the increase in the pump price of gas over the past five years." Of course, the other half would be the supply/demand relationship. Detailed economic analysis is available is King's column.

From another perspective, based on the principles of nominal prices and relative prices, internationally traded commodities like plastic resin must reflect the value of the currency that stipulates the prices. When the dollar falls, prices -- including benchmark gold and commodities -- go up.

China's June 1 bag ban targets ultrathin plastic bags and the free giveaway of shopping bags. But China's major tourism region Yunnan province is kicking off a real ban: It's outlawing all plastic shopping bags, no matter how thick they are, no matter at a charge or free, no matter if they are made from conventional materials or are biodegradable.

The ban doesn't stop here. According to Xinhua's Yunnan Channel, the provincial government has ordered the ban of all production, sale and use of plastic shopping bags, starting Jan 1, 2009. The ban supersedes the less strict national ban, the directive stresses.

The government spokesperson encouraged consumers to use alternative, eco-friendly shopping bags: non-woven, canvas and paper bags.

I seriously doubt Yunnan's policymakers understand that non-woven bags are made of plastic, or that they've ever heard how the production of paper bags consumes more energy and releases more greenhouse gases than their plastic counterparts.

Do they truly believe it's the right thing to do--making the 45 million residents go plastic-bag-free?

Bharath Srinivasan is the Guangzhou Chief Representative of Mumbai-based Reliance Industries Ltd. His response to my "Chinese labor market revolution/evolution" series offers an interesting perspective, comparing two of the world's fastest growing economies. Here's an unedited version of his writing:

We can attempt to put migrant worker demographics in China into perspective. The real demand for the workers would have come during 1990-95 as the country was coming out of re-adjustment. I presume the workers would have been around 25 to 30 at this time (Born in 1970s). Now, 15 years later, they are still in mid 40s having a minimum of 15 to 18 years of working years more (may be more considering the superior health of Chinese).

One large plastics factory owner in China told me recently that the new labor law could lead to release of labor from smaller factories that cannot meet the norms and bring more wiling workforce with some guaranteed benevolent employment. I see this kind of readjustment within the Industry cluster a source of labor for the profitably running factories to aid any expansions.

Movement to West could be mainly in textile and Shoe Industries as Plastic manufacturers' set up is a lot more elaborate than the stitching units, I guess. However, such Industry movements will attract that section of migrant population closer to their hometown, provided the moving enterprise is willing to retrain those who do not have the relevant skills.

Hence, for the plastics industry, I see secure supply of workforce in two ways: (1) Existing labor which has some time to go & (2) Readjustments from closures of small units within the industry segment. Yet infusion of new workforce is still an area of concern as is the case in large rapidly developing countries like in India.

The industry spread is all across India, exceptions can be in states where there was what you might call 'poor investment climate'. The reasons are simple. The focus of the Indian Industry was to satisfy domestic needs unlike the export-focused Chinese Industry. Hence they need not be located close to the ports. Secondly, any Industry had to rely significantly of self generated power as all provinces are equally power starved. Hence, most industries generate their own power, which means the engine for the Industry can be moved to any location. Thirdly, labor was available in all locations. India has 80 percent of Chinese population living in 30 percent of the land area. The population density is high in most places.

Interestingly however, there are widespread cases of 'migrant workforce' from states like Bihar, Rajasthan and Orissa in the Plastic Industry. These states have seen the least development in the past 60 years of Indian independence with virtually no new Industry in these places.

However, unlike China, which continues to be a manufacturing economy, India has moved into a 'service economy' in a big way. Most of the young graduates prefer white collar jobs which are also available in abundance. The recent flash of excellence displayed by Indian companies in manufacturing has mainly been in automobile, its ancillaries and the steel Industry which largely supports the automobile industry. Hence, finding a blue collared workforce for other industries in India is a lot more difficult than in China. I should also add, the productivity and work culture in India has much to be desired in comparison to China.

Hence, I might conclude that China is in a much better position than India in terms of labor right now.

The plastics industry in Vietnam appears to be doing well, just looking at the export figures. The country has earned an estimated US$345 million from exports of plastic products in the first five months of this year, up 31.9 percent over the same period last year, the Ministry of Industry and Trade was quoted as saying in a Nhan Dan Online story.

But the growth of dollar amount doesn't necessarily indicate an increase of volume. In fact, prices of plastic products have gone up across the board, both for exports and Vietnamese domestic market. The Nhan Dan report cited a 10-30 percent price hike of such plastic items as schoolbags, raincoats and children's toys. And the price increase of finished products was a result of rising resin costs. Prices of PP, PVC and HDPE increased US$30-50 per metric ton in May compared to April and up 23-25 percent compared to the same period last year.

Since the Vietnamese plastics industry largely relies on imported resin, increased spending on resin imports is the price it pays for export growth of processed products. Also taking into account inflation and labor wage hikes in that country, the bottom line tells a different story than sales.

A U.S.-based consultant called me, asking about the validity of setting up manufacturing of simple plastic products in Asia -- such as China, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, etc.

I've been promoting the idea of keeping plastic manufacturing, especially those that can be automated, where the market is. From a pure business viewpoint, it's quite simple: resin prices have been pretty much globalized with regional fluctuation; fuel and transport costs continue to rise; labor cost advantages and preferential policies are bound to change in emerging economies as they become richer. On top of these factors, of course, there are political and economic uncertainties of investing in a foreign country.

Take a look at Vietnam. The country's inflation tops 25 percent, with food costing more than 40 percent more than last year. It is also suffering a massive trade gap and a falling currency.

Vietnam's neighbor, important trading partner and investor -- China -- is seeing Chinese firms facing difficulties across the border.

According to Yang Zhen, chairman of the Business Association of China in Vietnam, who was quoted in a China Daily report, Chinese-invested companies in Vietnam have been suffering income losses as the dong depreciates, credit tightens, raw material and labor costs rise. The head of a plastic bag manufacturer from China was even attacked by local workers during a strike and had to hide in a government hotel, the paper reported.

If the Chinese economy is a large vessel, then the Vietnamese economy is a small boat. The latter's GDP is about one fiftieth of the former's. That's why China is more able to weather storms. However, when the big ship gets on the rocks, the damage and losses will also be much severe than with a small boat.

I like Morgan Spurlock's reality TV series "30 Days," in which he and other subjects live for a month in a way that's outside their comfort zones, such as living on minimum wages. If I had the resources, I'd tweak this concept and produce a TV program to showcase people's lives in China. Here's a brainstorm of possible episodes including the fictitious Mr. Wang:

1. Viewers get to watch Mr. Wang as he parts with his wife and son in a small village in Sichuan province and tries to find an entry-level laborer job in the plastics manufacturing industry in a big city. Since China's labor demand is outstripping supply, 30-something Mr. Wang with a high school diploma and no factory experience may still get offers. He decides to travel to different regions -- like Guangzhou, Shanghai, Tianjin -- and evaluate the job markets in different parts of the country. He compares pay packages, tries to get around the middleman, negotiates with big enterprises and small workshops, and insists on a legal employment contract. Trust me. It'll turn out to be eye-opener for both Western and Chinese readers. He may get tricked by the hirer on the contract terms. He may be asked to pay a job application fee for a bogus position. He may find out that Guanxi (connection) is crucial for landing a good job, and the connection can be made on the spot with a red envelop (containing cash of course).

2. In this episode, Mr. Wang takes a job. He starts a busy but simple life between his work station, factory dining hall and dorm. He gets basic training, tries to get along with his boss, coworkers and dorm mates, and observes the work environment: how safety measures are implemented, how overtime is tracked and compensated, how workers from the same province form cliques, etc. Since the free food provided by the factory is not great at all, he befriends the dining hall cooks for some perks. Since there's no TV or other entertainment options, every night, he and his seven dorm mates lie on their bunks telling stories about their families back home. When finally he has a day off, he gets out of the industrial park and explores the city, probably getting a taste of how expensive city life is and how he doesn't belong there. He inevitably encounters some cold faces and bad attitude from department store sales associates and restaurant waiters, who judge people on their appearance and accent... Back to the factory, he gets tired of waiting in line for the public phone in the dorm building and discovers that cell phone text-messages are more affordable than long-distance calls. He spends half of his first monthly paycheck, buys a pair of low-end, used cell phones and mails one to his wife.

3. In this episode, Mr. Wang quits his molding job and gets into the plastics machinery sales business. Viewers get to see how he prepares the first formal outfit of his life, learns to use the Internet, finds sales leads, and then hangs out with potential customers. Viewers will also see how he closes deals, and how kickbacks and other tricks work in China. He is lucky and successful, but not happy. As a salesman, he is expected to socialize everyday with customers, drink bottle after bottle of Chinese beer and shot after shot of liquor, and stay up all night in night clubs. He now sends more money home, but he doesn't want to tell his wife what his work is like. Over time, he finds himself making up things on the phone and subtle tensions arise between the couple.

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Ideas and characters welcome!