FOSHAN, China — Add another entry to the list of worries for the global economy and financial markets: labor unrest in China. Rapidly rising industrial wages are beginning to allow China’s workers to share in their country’s rising prosperity. The question is whether these gains can be maintained and even increased without disrupting supply lines to companies around the world, and without discouraging much future investment by Chinese and global companies alike.
The biggest eye-opener for multinationals in China recently has been a nine-day-old strike at a sprawling…