Globalisation has been a massive driver of social and economic change in China. As global manufacturing has sought out cheap labour in China, millions of rural Chinese have moved into sprawling new cities what are referred to as Special Economic Zones (SEZ's). Shenzhen was once a fishing village of 30,000 people when Chinese leader Deng Ziaoping made it the first Chinese SEZ in 1979. Over 12 million people now live there, and a high proportion work in manufacturing industries.

Both socially and economically, this means China is highly dependent on the continued success of the manufacturing sector in cities like Shenzhen. For this reason, the recent spate of product quality scandals in the Chinese manufacturing sector will be of great concern to Chinese authorities. Mattels massive recall this week of 18 million toys made in China by an outsourcer since 2002 is only the latest in a string of less than favourable public images of China, and come at a time when the Chinese Government are desperate to present China in a good light in the lead-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Executing a leading food and drug safety bureaucrat has been the Chinese Government's most notable response so far - and one which Amnesty International does not support! Also of major concern are quieter moves to tighten regulations regarding product quality.

The Chinese have no choice but to comply with whatever Western consumers want and demand in terms of product standards. They could not afford to have all those internal migrants out on the streets of major cities, unemployed and disenfranchised.

Our challenge is to transform consumer anger over lead paint in toys and the like into a wider concern for human rights. This is key to Amnesty Internationals push to "ethical consumptionҔ. For example, it's hard to see how consumer standards from Chinese-made goods will rise meaningfully without introducing the rule of law, not just capricious government action to shoot a corrupt bureaucrat or two. The rule of law would allow effective regulation to work, and would itself improve transparency for Western consumers of goods made in China. Then there are the working standards in the factories. Lead paint is just as poisonous to Chinese factory workers making toys as to Australian and other children playing with them.

The contents of our wallets provide motivation that no business can afford to ignore.