Columnist Lian Yue writes in the Southern Metropolis Daily about the Shanxi brick kilns and other examples of the “plight of the struggling masses,” translated by ESWN:
So far, you have only seen the beginning. According to the recollections and descriptions of some people, the “coerced labor” in the Shanxi brick kilns have traversed more than a decade in time and covered the entire province in scope. Even more disheartening was that we saw the usually crisis public relations management after the affair was exposed. This turned the matter of the “concentration camp” of “kiln slaves” into a straightforward matter of “illegal employment” which can be solved by paying the back wages. All the cruel butcheries (such as knocking someone unconscious and throwing him in the grinder to make minced meat (as reported on June 18, in Zhaoyan Metro News)) was turned into urban legend with a light repartee: “Show me the proof!”
Now that is even more frightening. When “kiln slavery” becomes only “illegal employment,” then what can possibly break the law? Has our nation become a zero-crime nation? It is very hard to accept that utopia has arrived so quickly. Fortunately, this idiocy was corrected. [Full text]
