Expert: China Slave Bust 'Tip of Iceberg'

[kurth]

China Train Station Hub for Forced Labor
Critics Question China's Ability and Political Will to Crack Down on Kiln Slavery Scandal
By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN
The Associated Press

ZHENGZHOU, China - Few police are seen at bustling Zhengzhou train station in central China, where people traffickers are believed to have abducted young boys and others for use as slave laborers at brick kilns. There is no shortage of tough-looking men approaching passengers with offers of work and accommodation, offers that frequently turn out to be a ruse to entrap people into forced labor. Uneducated and grindingly poor, China's 200 million migrant workers are among the most vulnerable to exploitation by phony job offers, and they are easily picked out by the animal feed or fertilizer bags they carry as improvised luggage...

State media said the 568 slaves freed in raids last week worked at kilns in Shanxi and Henan provinces that were operating under the protection of corrupt local officials, something made possible by two decades of political decentralization. Authorities say 168 people have been arrested, but experts say the true scale of forced labor could run much deeper. "The kiln situation is the tip of the iceberg," said June Teufel Dreyer, a China specialist at the University of Miami.

Dreyer said links between the kilns and officials could make a thorough crackdown difficult, since it could alienate those who national leaders rely on to carry out their orders as well as harm local economies in economically backward areas. The raids seemed prompted in part by the public stir over an open letter on the Internet from fathers of missing children. They said officials in both provinces turned a cold shoulder to their claims that up to 1,000 boys were enslaved at the kilns. In discussions in online forums, official media and the academic community, large numbers of people say the slave kilns underscore the corrosion of good government and public morality in China...

Yu Maochun, who teaches China studies at the U.S. Naval Academy, said such abuses will persist as long as communist rulers put internal political repression and the image of the party above rooting out injustice. The only unique aspect to the slavery case is that it was reported in state media, he said. "What is surprising is that many people find this horrendous incident surprising," Yu said.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=3294181

[Esra Star]

1. The corruption in China starts right at the top and is rampant all

the way down. China is a complete social disgrace.
Of course the population problem means that there won't
be change any time soon.

[David__77]

2. The leading party would improve its prestige by fighting for workers.

That's the paradox. Where they see "social instability," they should see the route to their own consolidation of power. If they were to really clamp down on these abuses, people would support them.

That said, this is no worse than Western countries at the same stage of economic development. If Western countries want to help the situation, they'll help China and give it the technology and capital so that it can develop more quickly and become an industrialized, moderately prosperous country.