So how long before they want to pay American workers what they pay the Chinese?

Wal-Mart is taking its worker exploitation global:

Wal-Mart Stores, the largest retailer in the United States, is laying the groundwork to become the biggest foreign chain in China with the $1 billion purchase of a major retailer here, according to people briefed on the deal.

The move represents a large step for Wal-Mart’s strategy in China, allowing the American retailer to more than double its presence in a country that, despite its size and growing middle class, remains largely untapped by foreign retailers.

Though the size of the acquisition — of a Taiwanese-owned supermarket chain called Trust-Mart — may be modest for Wal-Mart, it is a critical one because the Chinese market is becoming much more pivotal in the retailer’s overall international strategy. For Wal-Mart, China represents an opportunity to tap a vast and fast-growing market abroad at a time when the company’s sales are lagging elsewhere and it has run into obstacles to expansion at home.

“China is the only country in the world that offers Wal-Mart the chance to replicate what they have accomplished in the U.S.,” said Bill Dreher, an analyst at Deutsche Bank Securities.