The case of the children enslaved at a Shanxi brick factory has been widely reported in the Western and Chinese media, and is all over the Internet in both Chinese and English languages (a good summary by Chen Peijin of Shanghaiist is here, with another later summary by Chris Buckley of Reuters here).
There are a few interesting aspects of the story as related to media. Firstly, an open letter from the fathers of some of the children posted to the popular Tianya forum seems to have been a key factor in forcing government action. This is how China Digital Times described the events:
A group of fathers from Henan province recently ventured to brick kilns in Shanxi province to rescue their children, who were abducted and illegally forced to work as slaves…
After rescuing around 40 children, the fathers’ rescue efforts were obstructed by the local police, who were supposed to protect innocent people but instead were in alliance with the kiln owners. Exhausting all reasonable approaches and obtaining no responses from the government, the fathers had to seek help from the Internet. They published a moving open letter on June 7 on Tianya Club…
The letter brought about an outburst of public opinion supporting the rescue campaign and calling for the central government to interfere. On June 13, Wang Zhaoguo , member of the China Communist Party politburo, expressed his concern over the issue. One of the owners was immediately put on the wanted list by the police as a class B criminal.
State media have published news about the story, with the most aggressive reporting being done by The China Daily: Slave-labor boss detained amid national shock.
However, the government has also sought to minimize the effect of the affair on the ‘harmonious society’. On June 15, China Digital Times translated a letter purporting to be from ‘The Internet Bureau, CPC Central Office of External Communication’ which ordered news websites that ‘Harmful information that uses this event to attack the party and the government should be deleted as soon as possible.’
Nonetheless, there are still plenty of Chinese blog and forum posts about the affair, including the original letter from the enslaved children’s fathers.
This case is yet another in a growing list of cases of citizen activism on the Chinese Internet, and another encouraging sign that the government is listening to online chatter.
Comments on Tianya
Below are translations of some comments to the original Tianya post:
If I did not read Tianya, I would not know how dark and corrupt this society is…
The police and the gangsters are the same! I am disappointed by the local government, I hope the state takes action.
Socialism! Now it’s not even as good as capitalism!
These f*cking beasts must be severely punished!
CCTV! ! Focus Interview! [焦点访谈 — a news program that is supposed to investigate malfeasance in China] Why have you lost your voice at this time?
Why don’t the local cops just go die? How the hell can they prevent [the fathers] from taking their children away? They are not little dogs and cats, these are real lives, real children!
What does the goveroer of Shanxi Province do for his salary? Why don’t they stop this? Why don’t they punish the offenders severely?
It a rerun of the slave plantations in the American south.
No humanity! No justice!
Why does Tianya makes people feel so cold so often?
I felt icy cold in 30 degree weather, even without turning on the air conditioner.
Our material life is in the 21st century already, but is it possible that our morality remains in the Middle Age s?
Shoot those who should be shot! Close down that which should be closed down!
China Digital Times’ translation of Tianya forum post by children’s fathers is reproduced below, together with the original Chinese of the comments translated above.
China Digital Times’ translation of Tianya forum post by children’s fathers:
We are the fathers of the children who were abducted to toil at illegal brick kilns in Shanxi Province. Our children, who are very young and unsophisticated, were hoodwinked or forcibly dragged into cars by human traffickers at Zhengzhou Railway Station, bus stations, underneath pedestrian overpasses, or on the roads. They were sold for 500 yuan apiece to the owners of illegal brick kilns in Shanxi to work as slave laborers.
Since our children disappeared, we gave up everything, deserted our hometown and traversed almost the whole country to look for them. After great hardship and difficulties, we finally confirmed that they were sold to illegal brick kiln owners in Shanxi.
We were astonished when we finally caught a glimpse of our children, who were using both their hands and feet to work and whose hair was as long and disheveled as that of savages. Some of them have been isolated for seven years, some of them were severely beaten and are now disabled after they were caught escaping, and some had their backs ironed by the foremen using heated bricks (their backs couldn’t recover even several months after they were rescued and sent to hospitals).
We were too weak. And our children’s lives are constantly in danger. We had to ask recourse from the government. We traveled to the public security departments and the labor departments in the village, the county, and the district. What disheartened and disappointed us was that the public security department in the village not only disregarded our request, but even obstructed us by all means to take away our children. They stood by indifferently when the kiln owners threatened us. The county public security department, after getting orders from their superior to interfere, told us that since the children were kidnapped in Henan and the kiln owners were from Henan, we should come back and report to the Henan police. “We will full-heartedly cooperate if the Henan police take the case.” Leaving without a choice, we had to take another hard journey back to Henan.
However, the Henan police expressed nothing but incapacity to help. They explained that since our children were only coercively detained and illegally forced to work, and since no children died, the case was not strong enough to be registered. Besides, according to the law, the case took place in Shanxi, so it should be taken care of by Shanxi police.
The lives of our children should be taken care of immediately. Who can rescue them? With the governments in Henan and Shanxi passing the buck to each other, whom should we ask for help? This is extremely urgent, and concerns the life and death of our children. Who can help us?
Original Chinese of Tianya comments translated above:
CCTV! 焦点访谈! 这个时候为什么要失声?????
TMD,这些个畜生，一定要严惩。
社会主义！！！现在搞得还不如资本主义呢！！！
警匪一家，对当地政府真是失望啊，希望国家予以关注
不上天涯，不知道这个社会有多黑暗。。。。。。。。。。。。
和谐社会啊!!! 我想杀人啊!!!
当地警方怎么不去死啊???!!
TMD凭什么不让人家把人带走???
又不是小猫小狗
这是活生生的孩子活生生的生命啊!
山西省长和警察都是干什么吃的？？？？他们为什么不制止？？不严惩？？
简直是美国南部庄园再见啊。
没人性，没天理！
天涯为什么总让人越看越凉快？
30度的天气，不开空调还直冒凉气！
我们国家的物质生活已经在21世纪了，难道道德真的还在中世纪吗？
该枪毙的枪毙！该关闭的关闭！该下台的下台！！！