Since I'm the Red Panda, this issue is near to my heart. 
It's not really politics, but it's an interesting read:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55486-2003Feb23.html
Chinese Ignore Risks at Tech Salvage Sites
Unsafe and Unregulated, Computer Recycling Grows
By Peter S. Goodman
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, February 24, 2003; Page A01
GUIYU, China -- This is the end of the road for the toxic detritus of the computer age.
In towns such as this one on China's southeastern coast, vast quantities of obsolete electronics shipped in from the United States, Europe and Japan are piled in mountains of waste. Even as entire communities, including children, earn their livelihoods by scavenging metals, glass and plastic from the dumps, the technological garbage is poisoning the water and soil and raising serious health concerns.
China's role as dumping ground for the world's unwanted gadgets is an outgrowth of efforts by wealthy countries to protect their own environments. Many governments are encouraging the recycling of computers to keep them out of landfills and prevent heavy metals from seeping into drinking water. But breaking computers down into reusable raw materials is labor intensive and expensive.
[...]
Officially, China has its own ban on such imports, but the law is easily circumvented through payments to corrupt customs officials, according to industry sources.
The real costs are being borne by the people on the receiving end of the "e-waste." In towns along China's coast as well as in India and Pakistan, adults and children work for about $1.20 a day in unregulated and unsafe conditions. As rivers and soils absorb a mounting influx of carcinogens and other toxins, people are suffering high incidences of birth defects, infant mortality, tuberculosis and blood diseases, as well as particularly severe respiratory problems, according to recent reports by the state-controlled Guangdong Radio and the Beijing Youth newspaper.
It's not really politics, but it's an interesting read:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55486-2003Feb23.html
Chinese Ignore Risks at Tech Salvage Sites
Unsafe and Unregulated, Computer Recycling Grows
By Peter S. Goodman
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, February 24, 2003; Page A01
GUIYU, China -- This is the end of the road for the toxic detritus of the computer age.
In towns such as this one on China's southeastern coast, vast quantities of obsolete electronics shipped in from the United States, Europe and Japan are piled in mountains of waste. Even as entire communities, including children, earn their livelihoods by scavenging metals, glass and plastic from the dumps, the technological garbage is poisoning the water and soil and raising serious health concerns.
China's role as dumping ground for the world's unwanted gadgets is an outgrowth of efforts by wealthy countries to protect their own environments. Many governments are encouraging the recycling of computers to keep them out of landfills and prevent heavy metals from seeping into drinking water. But breaking computers down into reusable raw materials is labor intensive and expensive.
[...]
Officially, China has its own ban on such imports, but the law is easily circumvented through payments to corrupt customs officials, according to industry sources.
The real costs are being borne by the people on the receiving end of the "e-waste." In towns along China's coast as well as in India and Pakistan, adults and children work for about $1.20 a day in unregulated and unsafe conditions. As rivers and soils absorb a mounting influx of carcinogens and other toxins, people are suffering high incidences of birth defects, infant mortality, tuberculosis and blood diseases, as well as particularly severe respiratory problems, according to recent reports by the state-controlled Guangdong Radio and the Beijing Youth newspaper.
