Born into slavery

In a 2000 directive, the Chinese Ministry of Work and the Office of the Police classified information regarding child labour as “top secret.” Those who reveal cases of exploitation of children in Chinese factories can therefore be charged with the betrayal of “state secrets”: a crime for which one risks immediate arrest, a quick conviction (without the right to defence) and heavy sentences, including the death penalty.

This explains why it is so difficult to find information about child labour, a social plague that the International Labour Organization in Geneva estimates as involving millions of children (1).

The exploitation of children is a significant factor in maintaining the “spectacular” rhythm of growth of the Chinese economy. Unicef calculated that more than 30% of the income of Chinese families comes from child labour. Sending children – above all females – to work in factories is not always the cruellest choice: prostitution and the sale of organs are often the only alternatives.

Then again, if children are not exactly “enthusiastic” about contributing to the country’s progress, enjoy this excerpt from AsiaNews:

“From Hong Kong’s website China Labor Bulletin: on June 5, 2007, a local TV station aired an appeal by 400 parents from Henan whose children were kidnapped and “sold for 500 yuan each in areas full of brick factories, such as in the Yongji and Linfen municipalities in the Shanxi region.” The children were segregated for years and beaten if they didn’t work or tried to escape. The thousands of slave labourers in the brick factories were no secret: local police and authorities, the clients and many citizens all knew, yet no one intervened.”

Then again: “The places where these children live are worse than dog kennels” said Chai Wei, one of the Henan fathers who managed to enter various factories in order to seek his missing son, to the newspaper “Xinjingbao.” There were no beds, the children slept on wooden boards and the walls were covered with excrement. What we saw scared us to death.”

A law prohibits child labour: yet the maximum risk for the “employer” caught in flagrante is a fine of 1,000 Euros (10.000 yuan) - nothing when compared to the profits generated even by just one child. The employer’s licence is revoked only if a child “becomes disabled or dies in the workplace.”

As reported by an enquiry of the South China Morning Post, there are neither rules nor limits of age, hours or categories of work specified in the apprenticeship programs. Children – even younger than 12 – are initiated into factory work by the schools. In order to allow them to survive despite the scarcity of public funding, schools convince families and students to participate in low-paying “summer work programs” (shuqigong or “work study” qingong jianxue) in the factories. The money they earn goes directly to the school as payment for the school fees. “It’s a way of helping poor students, a collaboration between school and business,” the assistant director of a factory said when interviewed.

A splendid example of synergy, one could say!

In one of these apprenticeship programs, at the Longzheng Connector Component Factory of Dongguan (Guangdong), the children, hundreds of kilometers from home, are not even allowed to call home. Most of them are under 16 and are forced to work over 14 hours a day (from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. with a pause for lunch) for 500 yuan (50 Euros) a month.

Maybe this doesn’t give them enough time to learn, the factory’s managers must have thought – on one occasion inspectors found them in full-production mode in the middle of the night.

To quote an example, in a 2001 news item which was reported by media all over the world, 42 elementary school children burned alive in a fire at a school in Jianxi, which was in reality a fireworks factory.

Another example concerns Olympic gadgets. “PlayFair Alliance 2008, an organization which unites several trade unions, managed – using infiltrators – to enter factories in Shenzhen and Guangdong and report on the conditions of child slaves in the production of Olympic gadgets for companies authorized to produce objects with the Olympic logo. “The children work from 7:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. for 2 yuan per hour, which is half the minimum wage. They’re forced to murderous rhythms and overtime without pay. The same treatment is reserved for adults: 15 hours of work per day, 7 days a week, 30 days a month, without days off or holidays.”

Unable to move away from the work place for 13-14 hours minimum, sometimes they try to escape: some companies came up with preventative measures, such as strapping children to their chairs.

And if this was not enough, there are reports of guards breaking children’s legs and then applying specially made bandages to prevent their bones from healing in the correct position.

Thus, the children are crippled and can only dream about running away.

(1) About half of the 218 million child labourers estimated by ILO live in China.

References

Chen Guidi, Wu Chuntao "Può la barca affondare l'acqua?" Ed. MARSILIO. Censurato dalle autorità appena pubblicato, in Cina ha venduto più di 8 milioni di copie clandestine.
Han Dongfang: gli operai-schiavi sono “normali” nella Cina odierna (http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=it&art=9887&size=A)
Cina, aumento record per le cause contro lo sfruttamento del lavoro (www.asianews.it/index.php?art=6148&l=it)
I lager cinesi che fabbricano il sogno occidentale
(http://www.repubblica.it/2005/e/sezioni/economia/nostrolusso/nostrolusso/nostrolusso.html) Sfruttamento di minori al lavoro voluto dalla scuola(http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=it&art=9605)
Morire a 16 anni per pagarsi gli studi (http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=it&art=10298&size=A)
China Daily Woman 'killed by overwork' (http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-11/03/content_490170.htm)
Li Qiang:Workers pay price for China's economy (http://www.chinalaborwatch.org/en/web/article.php?article_id=50282)
Cina, lo sfruttamento all'ombra di Paperino (http://www.repubblica.it/2005/h/sezioni/esteri/paperino/paperino/paperino.html) Shenzhen 3 mila operai protestano contro lo sfruttamento. Salari bassi, straordinari non pagati, multe per pause troppo lunghe al bagno
(http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=it&art=8104&size=)
Wikipedia - WikiNews:
(http://it.wikinews.org/wiki/Cina:_i_lavoratori_parlano._Le_multinazionali_si_scusano) We need investigative journalists: what shocked Chinese society was the virtual slavery practiced
(http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2007-06/18/content_896290.htm)
Le condizioni di lavoro nell'industria tessile cinese in occasione delle Olimpiadi 2008 (http://www.oew.org/it/aktuellesartikel.php?id=390)
Cina, bimbi schiavi al lavoro per leOlimpiadi Corriere della Sera (http://www.corriere.it/Primo_Piano/Cronache/2007/06_Giugno/12/bambini_schiavi_olimpiadi.shtml) Rapporto della PlayFair sui bambini schiavi per i gadget olimpici (http://www.playfair2008.org/docs/playfair_2008-report.pdf)
Women_Workers_Report (http://www.china-labour.org.hk/en/fs/view/research-reports/Women_Workers_Report.pdf)
Operai sotto una pressa (http://dailymotion.alice.it/video/x31sgj_pressa-cinese_tech)
Ministero della Pubblica sicurezza cinese ‘ordine alla polizia «di colpire sodo qualunque forza ostile possa in qualunque modo turbare i Giochi’ (http://www.ilgiornale.it/a.pic1?ID=235069)
Working conditions still 'abysmal' in China (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=25567)
Beyond Codes of Conduct - Addressing Labor Rights Problems in China
(http://www.chinabusinessreview.com/public/0403/rosoff.html) Piccoli, infaticabili lavoratori (http://www.noidonne.org/index.php?op=articolo&art=1548)

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