China Digital Times

China news tagged with: Shanxi brick kiln (42)

• Police Free 32 Mentally-Handicapped from Forced Labor, Arrest 10 Suspects

  

  Ten suspects have been arrested for their role in forcing 32 mentally disabled people to work as slave laborers at brick kilns in Anhui Province. A look at the case, from Shanghai Daily:

  MORE than 30 mentally challenged slave laborers have been rescued from two brick kilns in eastern China’s Anhui Province, two years after a major forced-labor crackdown in Shanxi Province.

  Police in Anhui’s Jieshou City seized 10 suspects, including kiln owners and foremen, and rescued 32 people, aged from 25 to 45, who had been forced to work a dozen hours a day and were often beaten, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday.

  Most of the mentally retarded victims were believed to be from Anhui and neighboring Shandong and Henan provinces, the report said.

  
  China Daily looks at how the ‘workers’ arrived at the brick kilns:

  Zhang [the brick kiln owner], 38, a native of Jieshou, allegedly bought some of the “workers” for about 300 yuan ($44) each from a taxi driver in the neighboring Shandong province, Zhao [Liang, a Jieshou public security bureau officer] said.

  [...] Police are trying to find more clues to uncover a possible racket run by criminals to traffic mentally challenged people.

  See Xinhua for more details on the story, including the challenges of returning the laborers home:

  “All of them are mentally handicapped people aged between 25 and 45. Few of them can tell where they were from,” said Gao.

  He said the police helped 19 of them find their homes, and the remaining 13 had been temporarily sheltered in a welfare house in Jieshou, waiting for the families to pick them up.

  “We have put their photographs on the bureau’s website. Maybe their relatives are looking for them, and they may find the information on the Internet,” said Gao.

  Read about a similar brick kiln scandal in Shanxi that occurred in 2007.

  » Read more
  • May 22, 2009 7:05 PM

• Song: Chinese Children

  

  Zhou Yunpeng 周云蓬, 38, is a poet and folk singer based in Beijing. He went blind when he was nine. His last image of the colored world was the elephant in a zoo playing harmonica. This became an inspiration for him to write songs and sing later in his life. He likes to describe pure beautiful nature like a paradise, but he often reminds readers of the coldness of the external world and the struggle within a man’s heart. His language floats like water, his voice is rich and calm. The song below reflects several tragic news events. The helpless and angry tone represents a powerful social and cultural critique from the compassionate artist. Listen here. Music from Sogou, Lyrics translated by CDT:

  Don’t be a child of Karamay, you would burn your skin and make a mother’s heart ache

  Don’t be a child of Shalan town, you wouldn’t fall asleep under the inky black water

  Don’t be a child of Chengdu parents, a drug addicted mother doesn’t go home for seven days and nights

  Don’t be a child of Henan parents, AIDS in the blood laughs out loud

  Don’t be a child of Shanxi parents, your father would become a basket of coal and you would never see him again

  Don’t be a child of Chinese, when they starve they would eat you

  They’re worse than the old goat in the wilderness, whose eyes might become aggressive to protect their little ones

  Don’t be a child of Chinese, the parents are all too weak

  To prove their hearts are as hard as iron and stone, when death is imminent, they save their leaders first.

  ＝＝

  Another song by Zhou, called Empty Cup, goes like this:

  Children go out to play, haven’t returned
  Old men go to sleep, haven’t awakened
  Only middle-aged men sit lost in thought
  Night falls, lights come on, time for home
  Children dream of their own children
  Old men think of their grandmas
  Only middle-aged men are busy planting wheat
  Growing and deteriorating, the flowers have bloomed
  Turned to dust, turned to dust
  Grown, turned to dust
  Flowers bloomed, turned to dust
  Water ran for ten years, turned to dust
  Clouds floated for ten years, turned to dust
  ==
  Read some Chinese critiques of Zhou’s music at here, here and here. His profile is on the Southern Weekend.

  Another music video based on Zhou’s music and story of missing children of Shanxi brick kiln.

  

  » Read more
  • February 11, 2008 4:00 PM

• Netizen Party Announced

  

  It’s happened at last. From John Kennedy at Global Voices:

  From forcing the rescue of hundreds of brick kiln slave laborers last year and seeing it through long after local bodies gave up to being analytical piranhas when dealt obvious official lies, and numerous examples in between, it seems some netizens have realized their comparative advantage over local government authorities and this hubris now brings us the China Netizen Party.

  Kennedy goes on to translate some of the party’s founding documents, which include this rousing statement:

  2007 was a year of victory for Chinese netizens, as one-by-one they laid bare and denounced such incidents as the “South China Tiger” to “Ouyang’s Crater” and other which deceived both the Chinese People and the world. This clearly illustrates that in the Internet Age, obscurantist policy no longer has its desired effect on The Netizen. The Chinese Netizens hereby rise up! We are determined to form the Chinese Netizen Party to serve not only as a symbol of the complete abandonment of fanaticism and blind assent, but also as a sign that China has entered the Internet Age and a revolutionary milestone in public opinion within Chinese society, that we have now risen.

  All well and good, but one wonders how they will respond to accusations from China’s other political organizations that the new party is “too yellow, too violent?”

  » Read more
  • February 11, 2008 3:26 AM

• A Net Campaign for the Parents of Slaves

  

  On Global Voices, Bob Chen reminds us that the families of brick kiln slave workers are still desperately searching for their lost children, despite the lack of prolonged media or government interest in helping:

  According to the attorney Xu Zhiyong, the lawyers in Xi’an had all received order that they shouldn’t litigate for the kiln workers for any kind of compensation. And the many lawsuits on the process are still pending, leaving the parents like Zhang, whose son got seriously hurt and burnt in the kiln, suffering from an endless waiting. That’s why the famous blogger IAMV in bulloger.com launched a donation project, which later evolved into a mass action in blogsphere, to aid these helpless parents.

  [Image via Global Voices]

  » Read more
  • January 26, 2008 9:59 PM

• Look Up to the Stars Together - Lian Yue

  

  Freelance writer and blogger Lian Yue rewrote the poem, Look Up to the Stars by China’s Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. Lian’s poem, from Niubo Net, translated by CDT:
  
  
  
  I look up to the stars,
  
  So vast and profound;
  
  As abysmal as the road to the mine.

  The infinite truth,
  
  So hard for me to seek and follow.
  
  I lost my trace like the missing slaves in the Shanxi kilns.

  I look up to the stars,
  
  So solemn and holy;
  
  As noble as the milk-fed Olympics pigs.

  The stern justice,
  
  Fills me with love and respect.
  
  Like facing the flames burning the poverty den.

  » Read more
  • September 5, 2007 8:00 PM

• Combing the Brickyards for the Disappeared - Andreas Lorenz

  

  Spiegel Online tells the story of laborers forced to work in the Shanxi brick kilns and of families still searching for loved ones who may have disappeared inside the kilns:

  Chinese intellectuals like Hu Shuli, the editor in chief of the business magazine Caijing, are questioning whether the country — with its poorly paid labor market, exploitation of migrant workers, and even outright slavery — is denying many of its citizens “the right to freedom and dignity.” Has China after almost 58 years of communist rule completely lost its soul? “These incidents are truly ignominious for a civilized society,” says Jia Fenyong, a columnist for the state-run news agency Xinhua.

  Those looking into the causes of the scandal have uncovered the unsavory shadow world existing alongside China’s remarkable economic rise in recent years. It is a realm of provincial cities hoping to join the country’s march of modernization and countless villages that have a few simple brick buildings, horrible roads, and inhabitants that can barely read and write. [Full text]
  
  

  
  
  [Image: A group of freed slave workers outside a police station in the northern Chinese town of Linfen, by AFP via Spiegel Online]

  » Read more
  • August 15, 2007 9:35 AM

• More Than 1,000 Rescued From Forced Labor In China - Xinhua

  

  Xinhua News Agency just run this update report about investigation and law enforcement on Shanxi brick kilns:

  A total of 1,340 people, 367 of whom are mentally handicapped, have been rescued from forced labor since the notorious brick kiln forced labor scandal came to light in June, a joint investigation group reported on Monday afternoon.

  During the crackdown on illegal kilns, mines and workshops, 277,000 work units with 12.67 million workers were inspected, said Sun Baoshu, Vice Minister of Labor and Social Security and head of the investigation group, which represents the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, the Ministry of Public Security and the All-China Federation of Trade Unions.

  Police found that 67,000, or 24.2 percent of the kilns, mines and workshops inspected nationwide were operating without licenses. [Full Text]

  » Read more
  • August 13, 2007 3:34 PM

• In Search of the Missing Kiln Workers - Joel Martinsen

  

  Reports concerning forced labor at brick kilns in Shanxi province have disappeared from the Western media in recent weeks, but the case is not yet resolved. As Danwei reports, journalists and netizens in China are helping to track down people still missing who are suspected of having been forced to work in the kilns. From Danwei:

  Two weeks ago, Southern Metropolis Weekly ran an extensive cover feature on the men who had been forced to work in illegal brick kilns in Shanxi Province.

  Part of that feature was a list of the names of 137 former kiln slaves; the paper attempted to confirm their addresses and current status. Thirty-one names were released by the government of Hongdong County after the earliest kiln-bust, but the whereabouts of many of those rescued were unclear and much of the information on the list was incorrect. Other names were provided by a Shaanxi legal team suing for back wages, and the paper also looked into the seventy names listed by the parents in Henan whose search efforts spurred the government investigation. [Full text]
  
  

  
  
  [Image: Missing kiln workers Feng Jianwei and Shi Guoqiang, via Danwei]

  » Read more
  • August 5, 2007 8:34 AM

• Shanxi Governor Bows for Better Public Service - Nanfang Group

  

  Shanxi Province’s governor recently plead with his colleagues to do a better job in managing crises after punishments were handed down in the brick kiln slavery debacle. Selected passages translated from Nanfang Group, via sina.com:

  Shanxi penalized 95 local officials for failure in crisis mismanagement, or lack of speedy action, in the aftermath of the exposure of forced labor in illegal brick kilns– probably one of largest scale punishments of officials in the country’s history. During a meeting when 11 new regulations were issued to step up accountability for local officials, Shanxi governor Yu Youjun (‰∫éÂπºÂÜõ) bowed to his fellow colleagues to urge them to provide better public service and social management for rural areas.
  
  

  » Read more
  • July 23, 2007 5:48 AM

• China Slavery Verdict Angers Families - Ching-Ching Ni

  

  Apparently many family members of the victims of the Shanxi slave labor case are not appeased by the recent sentences handed down to brick kiln management:

  “We are very angry. This sentence is too lenient,” said Zhang Shanlin, father of a young man so badly beaten and burned that he cannot walk without assistance. “The owner got off too easy. Without him, how could they have enslaved so many people?”

  …Worried about the latest scandal’s potential to further tarnish the country’s reputation, officials have cracked down on 7,500 small kilns across north-central China and slapped more than a dozen kiln owners and foremen with jail terms. [Full text]

  See also “Comments on Slavery from a Former Prisoner” from the Time China blog, which includes comments from Bao Tong about the brick kiln case.

  » Read more
  • July 19, 2007 8:51 AM

• Beijing’s Lack of Penalties in Labor Cases Stirs Outrage - Howard W. French

  

  China announced verdicts yesterday in the Shanxi Brick Kiln slave labor controversy. According to the New York Times, popular response to the government’s measures, which included prosecution of only a few low-level officials, has been somewhat less than enthusiastic:

  Chinese journalists say government propaganda officials have urged the news media to limit coverage of the scandal. But the announcements on Monday brought a torrent of strongly critical commentary on the Internet, with thousands of bloggers and participants in news discussion groups denouncing what were widely perceived as light punishments and questioning the failure to pursue criminal charges or corruption accusations in more cases.

  “A serious political incident was first turned into a serious criminal case, and then slowly transformed into a matter of ordinary malfeasance,” one online commenter wrote. “Once all of these rustlings are over, the same things are bound to happen again.” [Full Text]

  » Read more
  • July 17, 2007 1:49 AM

• 95 Chinese Officials Punished in Forced Labour Scandal - IANS

  

  From IANS, via China National News:

  China’s forced labour scandal has led to the punishment of 95 officials in north China’s Shanxi province, with some sacked from their party or government posts and others given disciplinary warnings for lax supervision and dereliction of duty.

  The provincial disciplinary commission of the Communist Party of China (CPC) handed out the penalties Monday to officials in eight counties in Linfen and Yuncheng. Commission secretary Yang Senlin said the officials included 12 county level staff and six city level officials. [Full Text]

  » Read more
  • July 16, 2007 4:00 PM

• China Tries 26 For Slave Labour Ôºç AFP

  

  The second phase in China’s legal response to the Shanxi illegal brick kiln’(ȪëÁ†ñÁ™ë) controversy has begun. From AFP via Yahoo! News:

  Another 26 people accused of forced labour and brutal conditions in brickyards have gone on trial in China amid a scandal that has outraged the nation, state press said Thursday.

  The defendants are all charged with forcing people to work in “unspeakable” conditions at small brick factories in northern China, Xinhua news agency said. No verdicts have yet been reached, it said. [Full Text]

  » Read more
  • July 12, 2007 3:08 AM

• Only Democracy Ensures Human Dignity - Liu Junning (ÂàòÂÜõÂÆÅ)

  

  Liu Junning (ÂàòÂÜõÂÆÅ) is a researcher on social issues at the Institute of Chinese Culture under China’s Ministry of Culture. UPI Asia Online translated the article (original Chinese here):

  Recently exposed cases of enslaved child and adult laborers in China’s inland provinces have drawn nationwide attention. There are different opinions as to the causes behind this phenomenon, but everyone seems to agree that the owners of the illegal kilns are “evil-hearted.”

  In history there have been plenty of evil people and evil deeds. The question is, how could such evil deeds persist over a long period of time? This cannot be explained by the evil hearts of the kiln owners.

  Some have put forward “capitalism” as a scapegoat, concluding that collusion between capital and political power has penetrated all aspects of Chinese life. Such collusion indeed exits extensively, but this viewpoint accuses the capitalists without blaming those in power, which is inappropriate. [Full Text]

  » Read more
  • July 10, 2007 7:28 AM

• Southern Metropolis Daily: Where Did the Media Go Wrong Reporting the Brick Kiln Story? - David Bandurski

  

  From China Media Project:

  The Shanxi Brick Kiln Affair (ȪëÁ†ñÁ™ë‰∫㉪∂) has received a wave of coverage in China over the last few weeks. But the lead editorial (Á§æËÆ∫) in today’s Southern Metropolis Daily takes a hard look at reporting for the story and gives the media low marks for its own role.

  The editorial steps gingerly around the issue of censorship and what its role might have been in controlling the story — CMP wrote earlier this week about orders to tone down Internet coverage — but argues media were remiss in their duties, failing to carry out thorough on-the-scene reporting and provide verified details about the case. With public statements from top leaders, the paper said, coverage should have been blown wide open. And if local officials tried to keep a lid on the facts? Well, that was “itself a major news story that should be splashed across the front page”…[Full Text]

  - Read also previous posts via CDT here.

  » Read more
  • July 6, 2007 6:41 AM

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