For a state with so much riding on China -- Gov. Jon Huntsman speaks Mandarin and made a trade visit there last year -- reports coming out on horrific worker conditions should be worrisome -- even to the Legislature's free marketeers.

Reuters reports more than 100,000 Chinese died in workplace accidents last year. The New York Times and the Trib have found rampant workplace safety and health problems.

Things are slowly getting better, government officials promise, but China's coal mines remain the world's deadliest. Miners are killed daily as production and profit goals trump safety.

But China is so far away. And Utahns don't seem to care much about their own workers. Remember that blue ribbon (read: lightweight) state mine safety commission that looked into the Crandall Canyon mine disaster and decided state regulation is hunky-dory?