Chengdu

In the ongoing news of worker abuse and suicide at Apple's top eight suppliers in China, with Foxconn Technology Group's factories most prominent in the glaring international spotlight, the Fair Labor Association (FLA) has begun its on-site inspections of conditions at factories at Apple's behest, and the initial reports are better than expected.

At a factory about an hour west of Sichuan's capital Chengdu, Foxconn Technology Group, one of Apple's biggest manufacturing partners, employs hundreds of thousands who work day or night shifts, eating and sleeping at company facilities, as they help build electronics products for Apple and many other global brand names, such as Amazon's Kindle and Microsoft's Xbox.

Fashion wholesale giant Milanoo.com will launch a month-long back-to-school sale on July 28th. During the sale, shoppers can expect to save up to 50% off the regular prices of over 100 back-to-school essentials and fashion items. CHENGDU, China, July 27, 2011 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Milanoo.com is gearing up to kick off the Back-to-School season with a bang. Beginning on July( )28th, 2011, Milanoo.com will be discounting over one hundred of its most popular back-to-school essentials and fashion items by up to fifty percent. Shoppers taking part in the sale, which runs through August( )22nd, 2011, won't need

About a decade ago, businesses became aware of the magnitude of challenges associated with doing business in China and other emerging markets. For the most part, the customers with whom they'd be doing business with were still "the usual suspects," so the challenges were mainly around operations and logistics.