While de jure slavery is thrown out the window, de facto slavery is alive and well - and cheap labor is where it's at.  Anything a mind in the West can imagine, the East can provide the labor force to produce it cheaper - pure and simple. Very true indeed, so long as the Asian countries in question can maintain control over their cheap labor force. I go to China regularly on business and deal with quite a few people high on the scale. Party member or not, most of those that are successful (meaning those who have money) realize that they walk a very fine line between progress and chaos. Their model simply won't work without de facto slavery and they remember all too well how Mao was able to organize the peasants and take the country over.    If they cannot keep up breakneck growth (they can't...nobody can) then they truly fear what the teeming underclass could do to their societal betters.