"That's not the point."
"Really?" Hulan retorted. "Do you have any idea what a factory like Knight has done for the surrounding area? I'm not defending the company. I've been inside, but I also see a new prosperity in the countryside that was unimaginable twenty years ago."
Pearl seemed ready for Hulan's challenge. "You want the big picture? All right, here it is." For the next few minutes Pearl talked about her and her colleagues' efforts to cover American manufacturing practices in China and their deeper cultural and political implications. Manufacturers went overseas for cheap labor and great tax breaks, but they could also skirt around American laws by hiring children, by using chemicals that would never pass U.S. safety standards, by having working conditions that were dangerous, and by employing people for inhumane numbers of hours.
"Occasionally some company or person gets targeted by a watchdog group," Pearl said. "You've read about them. Some conglomerate hires a celebrity who endorses a line of children's clothing that turns out to be manufactured using child labor. What do the celebrity and conglomerate do when the truth comes out? They plead ignorance." Pearl sighed. "The truth is, they probably are ignorant, but that doesn't make it right. Then you get reporters who want to go and see what it's like in a factory like Knight, but we can't get in. You have to wonder about that."
"But does anyone wonder about it?" Hulan asked.
Pearl 's eyes narrowed. "Meaning?"
"Meaning I lived in the States for a while. I never noticed anyone caring much about China one way or the other."
Every once in a while Hulan said something that showed animosity toward the U.S. David knew she sometimes did it just to elicit a reaction. Other times he thought she was giving her real opinion. Right now, watching these two women-one Chinese, the other Chinese American- he wondered what exactly Hulan was doing.
"That's the beauty of the story," Pearl exclaimed. "Most Americans never think at all about China, and to me that's very strange, because China plays a part of our everyday lives."
"What are you talking about?" Hulan asked, agitated now.
" China 's invisible," Pearl responded, "producing invisible work and invisible products. From the moment we wake up in the morning until we go to sleep at night, we are coming in contact with China. Our alarm clocks, our T-shirts, our designer clothes. The tires on our cars. The electronics we use all day. Take any holiday-Easter, Halloween, Christmas- all the decorations are made in China. The toys our kids play with, even those that we consider to be the most 'American'-Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, G.I. Joe, Sam amp; His Friends, and of course Barbie. Tens of millions of Barbies are made in China every year. Without naming names, I can say that there are some American factories in China that pay only about twenty-four dollars a month. That's six dollars a month less than what the Chinese laborers working on the transcontinental railroad were paid in the last century."
"But these things aren't unique to China," Hulan said, again defending her home country.
"You're right. They also happen in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Haiti, but I'm Chinese American, and what happens here matters to me."
Seeing Hulan's dubious look, Pearl said, "When Guy first contacted me, I didn't know what to believe. Then he started e-mailing information about the factory's conditions. They sounded really awful." She turned to David. "Like lawyers, reporters also need proof. I tried to set up several appointments with Henry Knight, but he always canceled. Then, when I heard that Tartan was going to buy Knight, I tried Randall Craig, then Miles Stout. They were pleasant enough, but of course they told me nothing. About three months ago, I called Keith Baxter. He denied any wrongdoing by Knight or his client, Tartan. But I kept calling and giving him pieces of information that only someone on the inside, someone like Guy, could know. The more I pressed Keith with those tidbits, for lack of a better word, the more I could sense his softening. Did you know that Keith used to come out here a lot?"
David nodded. Miles had told him that Keith had been over here at least once a month for the last year, sometimes staying for a week or two at a time.
"He knew that what I was saying was true," she continued, "because he'd seen it himself. I think at the end he was ready to give me proof, tangible evidence of Knight's activities here."
"Of what?" David asked. "Here's what I'm hearing: Knight has a factory in China that has bad working conditions. But Tartan is about to buy Knight. Once that happens, any irregularities that exist-and I'm not saying they do-will be immediately remedied."
"Unless Henry Knight's hiding the truth from Tartan to keep his stock prices high. That should be of great concern to you and your client."
David had had enough of Pearl 's insinuations. The papers he'd seen at Suchee's house already troubled him. He needed to get up to his room and see how they related to Sun's. Gnawing at him was the thought that he was representing a client who might be up to his eyeballs in illegal acts. If this was so, he was trapped by an ethical code that said he would have to continue to represent Sun. At the same time, he had a responsibility to Tartan to make sure the sale went through smoothly and without illicit shenanigans attached. What Pearl had just suggested about Knight International was fraud, pure and simple. He couldn't let Tartan get pulled into that muck. He had to know if she had any real information.
"Are you saying that the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the sale?"
"No," Pearl answered.
"Did Keith give you proof that there was a violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act?"
"Of course not."
"Did Keith give you any reason at all to believe that there was a federal investigation of any sort?"
"No," she responded.
"And yet you wrote-"
"I had to pressure him somehow."
"You made that stuff up!" David jabbed out the words.
"I always said it was alleged," she answered defensively.
"Alleged? Alleged by whom? You made it sound like he was the target of a criminal investigation. Do you have any idea what that did to him?"
"Well, I had to keep the pressure on," she repeated lamely. "I had to make him believe that an investigation already existed so that he'd bring me the papers. You know, take his case to the press-"
"Do you have any concept of how your lies made his family feel after his death?"
"That's why I wrote that the case was no longer an issue. That's why I manufactured the quote from Henry Knight. It was unethical, but I'm not the first reporter to do it."
"But there never was a case!" David's hands bunched into fists. He'd never felt so strongly the desire to hit someone-a woman-before.
Pearl regarded him coolly, then asked, "Have you considered that Keith might have appreciated what I wrote? That maybe it provided a safe cover for him, especially if he was going to be a whistle blower?"
"We'll never know that, will we?" David said through clenched teeth.
David's fury grew as he realized Pearl 's indifference to the pain she'd caused. Guy continued to sit there, pathetic in his misery. Around them business travelers swilled down a last beer or scotch before retiring.
"What are you doing in my country?" Hulan asked, her voice frigid in anger.