China: Modern-day slaves are beaten and buried alive as police look the other way

Asia News ^ | June 15, 2007

[NYer]

Freed “slaves” tell their horrific stories. Rescued by relatives they talk about police indifference. Children lured with promises of jobs are kidnapped and forced to work like adults. Factory owners threaten and beat parents who try to rescue their children and those of other parents.

Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Zhang Yinlei was lured into slavery with promises of a job at a brick factory. Instead he worked for months seeing his fellow workers beaten to death. Only by accident did his father find out and came to his rescue. His story of enslavement is not unique; it is one of many in 21st Century China, the new land of prosperity and boom times.

Yinlei’s father, Zhang Shanlin, told the South China Morning Post that his son was trapped when he tried to find a job after graduating in March from a vocational school in Zhengzhou (Henan). The boy was forced to work 15 to 16 hours a day and anybody who tried to escape was beaten. Workers “were treated like the dead.”

On April 26 his son and five other workers were almost burned alive when they were forced to move bricks in a searing hot kiln. All six were severely hurt but were locked up in the factory and given no treatment for over a month.

It was only after a client from Hongdong County told police about the injured workers that the owner sent the six to a hospital for treatment. But the police still did not contact the victims' families.

Using a cellphone borrowed from the relative of another patient, Zhang Yinlei called his father who arrived on May 29. In the hospital the factory owner even demanded Mr Zhang pay his son's medical bill. The police instead did nothing.

Since the factory's owner was a village party secretary “he was protected by local officials and police,” Mr Zhang said.

When he went to pick up his son's student identity documents at the brick factory, he saw several dozen workers, including four to five aged around 12 to 14, he said.

Stories like this are not exceptional. Zhou Yong said that he went to work in a brick factory in Hebei province when he was 17; that was seven years ago. He was beaten as soon as he arrived and forced to work 16 hours a day for little food.

He was able to escape and go to the police who simply sent him to a bus station but refused to rescue the other kids at the factory. There were at least 20 other boys working there, malnourished and thin, he said.

Jiu Wenjie was 15 when he went missing in January in Zhengzhou. His parents have been looking for him ever since. His mother Zhang Xiaoying said that she visited hundreds of kilns where she saw children working like adults.

Chai Wei, whose son went missing in April, said he knew of other parents who had rescued about 100 workers since March, including 41 children—one just eight years old. But kiln owners tried their best to intimidate and beat them up in order to chase them away.

[B-Chan]

And that’s the good old USS MIDWAY (CV-41) in the background — my uncle’s ship during the 1950s. Here’s hoping for some “Midway Magic” next fall!

[pissant]

LOL. Perfect.

[mjolnir]

Good point.

Duncan Hunter’s support of Taiwan clearly strengthens human rights in the region.

However, I fail to see how erecting broad trade barriers that don’t distinguish between those producers that violate elevate workers in China and those which repress them aids Chinese citizens.

The one example where a trade barrier worked was in the case of South Africa. Most people now agree that Ronald Reagan was wrong in his constructive engagement policy, and trade sanctions were the correct course. However, given current events in South Africa, I wonder whether “most people” are correct.

Trade is not to blame for China’s lack of freedom-— trade is currently that country’s greatest source of freedom. Slavery/serfdom did not just appear in China, and capitalism, by increasing competition, is the best hope for increasing worker’s treatment and wages there. Broad trade barriers to China, on the other hand, only rewards and encourage inefficient businesses of the sort that abuse basic human rights, by ensuring they don’t have to deal with competitors from, say, the United States.

[Revelation 911]

you mean the bricks my neighbor buys at home depot were made by slave labor.....but but....but it says made in china !

[Revelation 911]

Prove it. Show me links that irrefutably shows that Wal-Mart is getting inventory from factories that abuse workers...

it should suffice that we subsidize a communist regime through trade, now you want proof of worker abuse for product walmart purchases.....oh please

[pissant]

The difference is in S. Africa, they were nominally an ally with the US, so Reagan did not want to cut off trade. We can make no such claim regarding China. And the welfare of their workers is not the most pressing issue in dealing with them. It’s national security.

[Revelation 911]

Prove it. Show me links that irrefutably shows that Wal-Mart is getting inventory from factories that abuse workers...

do any workers in China have free speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom to assemble, freedom to own guns etc etc.....thats abuse enough and the whole damned country is guilty of it

[RedStateRocker]

uh, oh. The “Free Traders” are going to be here any moment and remind us that our economy is dependent on letting the Chinese sell all they can to us and that any deviation from this orthodoxy makes one a Patsie.
Should have let General MacArthur deal with ‘em back in the 50’s.

[RedStateRocker]

“And these are people we trade with and Americans companies want to open branches or headquarters in??”
Yes; their justification is that it allows them to buy stuff cheap at Wal Mart.

[jedward]

“The election of Duncan Hunter is imperative to maintaining our sovereignty, keeping the Chinese and Islamic wolves from our door!

Unlike many candidates, he is not a multimillionaire. Nor is he being showcased gratis on nearly a daily basis by the MSM.

Please generously help him to gain national exposure:

http://www.gohunter08.com.

Thank you.”

From a Conservative Perspective and most importantly a Patriotic one as well, Duncan Hunter is currently the ONE candidate that stands head and shoulders over the other declared candidates in representing Americans and Patriots.

Socialism is one step away from Communism. Duncan hunter “gets it”. Our Flag and our National Soverignty are on the table as we speak. Duncan Hunter has proven himself as a Patriot in my eyes. His record is proof of his consistancy, and right NOW is a time when that trumps everything! Conservative, Patriot! Now there’s something I will stand behind.

[marron]

China has always been a slave state. The difference now is that, as China slowly opens, we can see what is happening beneath the surface in ways we could not before.

I agree with others who believe that engaging with China has done an enormous amount of good in opening them up, and helping to create freedom that was not there before. It also makes it possible to expose the horrors and the corruption that still exist there.

To me its not “either-or”, we need to engage, we need to trade where its appropriate, and we need to shine spotlights on China’s slave-labor system and her persecution of Christians and other religions at every opportunity. And I agree with Hunter, that China must be held to the agreements she herself has signed, and beyond that, she must be held to the norms of basic morality. The price of opening our markets to her must be civilized behavior. We must never be shy about demanding it.

Oh, by the way, “go Hunter”.

[jedward]

Ping

[jedward]

Ping to post.

[Paperdoll]

The heck with Wal-Mart. The important point is recognizing who is calling the shots, choosing the nominees, influencing clueless minds in this country! The George Soros owned MSM.

The point we must concentrate on is who we want to lead us against the Communist threat against our country by China, Russia, North Korea, Iran. Sleight of hand is played everyday to take our minds off our priorities, deliberately to advance their agenda.

Duncan Hunter has always seen the lay of China’s land. He has the vision, (now proven) clear thinking, the solid solutions so desperately needed by our country today.

And we are the deer in the headlights fast approaching from all directions at once. AMERICA NEEDS DUNCAN HUNTER! http://www.gohunter08.com.

[Centurion2000]

Horrifying.

[Non-Sequitur]

China: Modern-day slaves are beaten and buried alive

I understand this may be a track and field event in the '08 Olympics.

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

BUMP DAT...

[mjolnir]

Well said!

I support Thompson right now, but that was a very good post.

[EternalVigilance]

I’ve said for some time that China is no longer communist. It is now explicitly a fascist super-state. One that’s being built with our money.

[jedward]

“One that’s being built with our money.”

You make good points EV. And they can also try and pull the rug whenever want. Not a good position when your standing on the rug :(