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Published on August 24, 2007

According to his colleagues, he lived in a 25-square-metre room in his Foshan factory. And, unlike many Chinese factory owners, he treated and paid his workers well. They even mourned for him.

From various reports in the media, I gather that he was not unscrupulous - or maybe minimally. Despite the lead contamination in the Mattel toys he manufactured, the 52-year-old did have a lead-detector in his factory, which was obviously not in use. (Then perhaps it was not functioning properly or operated half-heartedly - as do most things in China, in my experience.)

Critics blamed a twisted and tangled supply chain for the mess - this quest to find the cheapest deal possible. Whether or not he was directly implicated, Zhang was a victim of a system that thrives on low production costs at the expense of humanity.

An appreciating currency, rising labour costs and multiple middlemen are slowly suffocating manufacturers.

Zhang was one of the many who lost out in the web of substandard quality, bribery and deceit.

Globalisation has squeezed the life out of many businesses at an unprecedented rate and Zhang was one of the first to take the noose.

Corporations, particularly listed ones, are more concerned with quarterly growth and generous bonuses and stock-option handouts.

Trade is good, but he way that many enterprises all over the world, and not just China, are conducting their businesses does not create added value - commercial or human. Brand owners will always go to the next country that offers the lowest price.

The plight of the Chinese encapsulates our shortcomings. We now see throngs of them in Africa, extracting whatever resources they can get their hands on.

"We are back where we started. Sending raw materials out, bringing cheap manufactured goods in. This isn't progress. It is colonialism," said Wilfred Wonani, head of the Chamber of Commerce in Kabwe, Zambia's second-largest city.

Kabwe once saw Chinese businessmen manufacturing clothes from the country's plentiful supply of cotton. Now these businessmen export raw cotton instead.

No new jobs are created. No new products are researched and developed.

We must learn to embrace innovation and proper new product development - be it renewable energy, eco-friendly hybrid cars or biodegradable plastic. Sooner or later consumers would catch up to this too.

As one of my favourite bands, The Manic Street Preachers, sing, "If you tolerate this, then your children will be next."

Kinan@nationgroup.com