May 29, 2019. Beijing. Affiliated Scholar Aaron Halegua gave a presentation at the US Embassy in Beijing about his on-going work defending labor protections of Chinese construction workers in Saipan. As he describes, multiple Chinese construction firms were contracted to build a Hong Kong-invested casino on the Pacific island of Saipan, part of the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. They employed thousands of workers from China, many of whom paid recruiters large fees for those jobs, but U.S. federal authorities later determined that the companies owed $14 million in back wages and violated numerous workplace safety and criminal laws. The presentation discussed what was at stake and what steps can governments take to protect the rights of laborers working overseas. More about the event here.