'I believe passionately in giving back and making a difference'

'What I'd like to do is continue to write books that, even if it's only in some small way, change the way people think about the world.'

Re-read this quote from Alexandra Harney two or three times and allow the phrases to permeate. You should now know quite a lot about her, and not least that she is very good with words indeed.

If you still haven't identified the one word which distinguishes Harney from virtually everyone else you will ever meet, don't worry. You'll get there.

(The quote is taken from an impromptu phone call, not from a polished and professionally edited publication. Harney was in Tokyo, interspersing this interview with quick-fire exchanges in Japanese as she prepared for an appearance on a Japanese TV panel show; she is fluent in Putonghua and Japanese.)

Harney is in great demand right now. The reason is her first book, The China Price: The True Cost of Chinese Competitive Advantage, in which she laid bare the truth behind manufacturing conditions for female migrant workers in the Pearl River Delta.

Her book was one of the first to raise serious questions about the behaviour and motivations not only of the large multinational corporations profiting from China's cheap labour, but also the consumers buying their 'Made In China' goods from Wal-Mart Stores while at the same time blaming the Chinese for closing their factories and taking their jobs.