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]