China: End Child Labor in State Schools

‘Work and Study’ Programs Put Hundreds of Thousands of Children at Risk

Human Rights Watch, December 3, 2007-

(New York, December 3, 2007) – The Chinese government should abolish the use of income-generating child labor schemes in middle and junior high schools because of their chronic abuses, Human Rights Watch said today. Many programs interfere with children’s education, lack basic health and safety guarantees, and involve long hours and dangerous work.

“China claims that it is fighting child labor, and repeatedly cites its legal prohibition against the practice as proof,” said Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “But the government actively violates its own prohibitions by running large programs through the school system that use child labor, lack sufficient health and safety guarantees, and exploit loopholes in domestic labor laws.”

Under “Work and Study” programs regulated by the Ministry of Education, schools in impoverished areas are encouraged to set up income-generating activities to make up for budgetary shortfalls. According to official statistical material from the Ministry of Education seen by Human Rights Watch, more than 400,000 middle and junior high schools, which are for children ages 12 to 16, nationwide are running agricultural and manufacturing schemes. In 2004, proceeds from Work and Study programs generated over 10 billion yuan (US$1.25 billion), the statistics show.

Chinese law prohibits the use of child of labor under age 16 but stipulates that children may be employed under special circumstances, such as in sports or in the arts, or if their “occupational training” and “educational labor” does not adversely affect their personal health and safety. Regulations that govern Work and Study programs in middle and junior high schools prohibit hazardous work and stress that “education must come first,” but fail to provide a clear definition of the acceptable kind, intensity, and overall time duration of this special category of work.

The majority of schools limit these schemes to seasonal agricultural work (such as growing and harvesting crops), improving school facilities, or producing small handicrafts over summer breaks, either independently or through contract with outside employers.

But overly vague Work and Study regulations and poor supervision have led to widespread abuse of the system by schools and employers alike. Children as young as 12 have been employed in heavy agricultural and hazardous construction work. Others have been dispatched to local factories for weeks or months of “summer employment.” Some schools have turned into full-fledged workshops to produce local handiwork or foodstuff while relegating teaching to a few hours a week.

In recent years, numerous cases of children working in abusive conditions under the guise of Work and Study programs have been documented, with problems ranging from long working hours, dangerous working conditions, low salaries, and a range of health and safety hazards.

In July 2007, more than 100 middle and junior high school children were found in a factory making cardboard boxes in Panyu district, near Guangzhou. They worked eight-hour days in different shifts, the first starting at 8 a.m. and the last finishing at 11 p.m. The children were housed in the factory’s dormitory and paid 2.4 yuan per hour (US$0.30).

In June 2007, 500 children from a middle school in the western province of Sichuan were discovered working 14-hour shifts in a factory in Dongguan, Guangdong Province. Their school had contracted them to the company for summer employment. The children complained of poor living conditions, including crowded dormitories and insufficient food, and an array of work-induced health problems. Children were fined for production mistakes.

And in August 2006, local media reported that local school authorities in Maoming Municipality, Guangdong province, had arranged for 200 schoolchildren from poor families to work over the summer in factories in the neighboring manufacturing centers of Dongguan and Shenzhen. The children were working 11-hour days, with no rest on the weekend. Many complained of health problems, such as flu-like syndromes, persistent headaches, and fevers. A 16-year-old girl reportedly died as a result of untreated encephalitis. She had been complaining of high fever for three days but was not allowed to rest.

Budgetary pressures at the local level may account for worsening practices, with local government often slashing education and health budgets when revenues decline. Chinese law mandates that the state provide all children with nine years of free and compulsory education, but in practice most schools, especially in poor areas, cannot function without collecting tuition fees. The Ministry of Education says the Work and Study system is designed to generate revenue that enables schools from poverty-stricken areas to operate, and to subsidize children from poor families who cannot afford school-related fees. Local education departments at the prefectural or district level routinely fix revenue targets that must be met by individual schools, even though doing so is banned by the central government. In recent years, increasing budgetary pressures on schools have contributed to their “out-contracting” of students to employers looking for a cheap and easily manipulated workforce.

Hard labor, low pay, and hazardous work conditions are more prevalent in poor and remote rural areas. Schools, often with the encouragement of local education authorities, have sent children from poor areas in Sichuan, Hunan, Anhui, Guangxi, Guizhou, and Shaanxi to factories in the coastal regions for “summer employment.”

In remote areas such as Yunnan, Gansu, and Xinjiang, local employers have hired children for heavy agricultural work during the harvests. In December 2006, the Chinese media reported “severe violations” of Work and Study regulations in Minqin county, near Wuwei municipality (Gansu Province), including hazardous work conditions, unsafe transportation, and long working hours. In one incident, a middle school pupil died after falling from the truck used by the school to bring the children to the work fields. In April 2006, primary schoolchildren from Luoshan, Henan Province, were dispatched to a local tea farm to pick tea. A local teacher explained that it was the only way for the school to meet operating costs.

“Inequalities in China’s education system are out of control,” Richardson said. “Children from poor areas not only face vastly inferior resources, now they must also engage in heavy work to finance the schools they attend. The responsibility for adequately funding compulsory education should not fall on the shoulders of the children themselves.”

The State Council, China’s cabinet, has acknowledged the existence of severe defects in the Work and Study system in primary and middle schools. In 2006, prompted by an accident in which 131 children were poisoned after ingesting oil made from castor-oil seeds their school was making under contract from a local company, the central government issued a set of detailed instructions urging greater compliance with educational, health, and safety standards in Work and Study programs. “Labor that exceeds the bodily strength of children, involves toxic or dangerous material, or harms the development of the child are strictly prohibited,” the instructions said.

Other unauthorized practices detailed by the document include: the imposition of revenue targets by education departments on schools, and by schools on individual classes and schoolchildren; fining children who fall short of work quotas; children working overlong hours; and companies’ manipulation of the Work and Study label to employ underage workers.

Yet these new instructions have so-far failed to remove the potential for abuse. In 2006, authorities in the northwestern province of Xinjiang banned the employment of elementary and middle school children to pick cotton because it is excessively physically demanding. However, children were then redirected to other types of work that press reports describe as only marginally less taxing, such as picking beetroots, tomatoes, and other vegetables in state-run farms, and collecting recycling material. In summer 2007, factories in Guangdong, Jiangxi, and Fujian provinces were found using child labor under bogus Work and Study schemes, prompting domestic experts to urge the government to close this loophole in the legal prohibition of child labor.

Human Rights Watch said that little information about Work and Study schemes was publicly available, making it difficult to precisely assess the extent of unsafe forms of child labor in the education system. Most statistical information published by the government aggregates data for middle and junior high schools with figures for high school vocational training and student employment schemes for university students, which all fall under the same qingong jianxue (Work and Study) appellation. The results of a nationwide survey about middle and junior high school Work and Study programs conducted by the Ministry of Education from October 2006 to February 2007 have not been made public.

State censorship of the media has also contributed to the problem. The Ministry of Labor continues to classify statistics and details about child labor cases as “state secrets.” In September 2006, reporters from CCTV, China’s national TV network, documented the employment of children as young as 8 to harvest corn for a local employer. Children were shown carrying heavy loads and working in fields for the entire day. The broadcast sparked public outcry, but, rather than encouraging public debate of the problem, the story was instead removed from the CCTV’s website.

Human Rights Watch said the government should immediately stop programs that put children at risk, release all the information and data about these programs in view of reforming the labor laws, and publicly announce how it will phase out the system.

China is a party to the United Nation Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 182, which prohibit work that is hazardous or interferes with a child’s education.

“China’s own laws and international obligations recognize that children shouldn’t be working,” said Richardson. “But the government allows dangerous work by underage children if their schools organize it. This really raises doubts about China’s commitment to eliminating child labor.”

- Original report from Human Rights Watch

(photos) Police Repress Thousands Workers’ Strike with Dogs in South China

By Xin Fei, Epoch Times Staff, Nov 30, 2007-

Thousands of workers from the Aigao Electronic Plant in Dongguan City, Guangdong Province went on strike on November 27 to protest raised food prices without consulting them. More than a thousand police arrived on the scene with dozens of dogs to repress them. Many workers were injured by the dogs and arrested.

A worker from the factory interviewed by The Epoch Times on November 28 said that workers left the plant on strike in the morning. He saw hundreds of police armed with anti-riot equipment blocking the road around the factory, and forced the workers back into the factory. Afterwards, the police went into the factory and stationed police on every floor of all the buildings. They forced the workers to resume work. During the day, the police beat some workers’ heads with batons and captured a dozen strike leaders.

Mr. Huang, one of the workers, said that many police vehicles arrived that day. There were many kinds of police, including special police, armed police, anti-explosive police, and public security officers. Police also instructed the dogs to bite workers and used batons to beat workers, including female workers.

“The police seized the strike leaders, kicking and punching them and then dragged them into the police vehicles. Just during the time I was on the spot, I witnessed the police fill 7 or 8 police vehicles with workers and drive away, each car carried about a dozen workers.” He said.

Women Not Spared

“The police were like bandits. They treated workers cruelly. They even kicked girls and beat them with batons. Some girls’ faces were seriously bleeding from the injuries. Some lay on the floor and were unable to move after being kicked. One girl’s skull was broken and kept bleeding.” A woman, Shen, said.

Huang said that the reason for the strike was that the factory issued a notice to deduct more the food expense on November 22. Workers were not happy about it. They wanted to negotiate with the factory, but the factory did not want to meet with them.

Living Conditions Are Intolerable

“It’s not only the increase in the food expense,” Huang said, “The wages are low and the treatment is bad. Sixteen people live in a small hut. Sometimes the food is terrible. They raised the food expense without consulting with workers. So the workers feel it’s intolerable.”

Ms. Shen said that their wage is low. The wage is 690 yuan (approximately US$94) every month, the accommodation deduction is 59 yuan (approximately US$7) per month, and the food expense deduction is 150 plus yuan (approximately US$20) per month. So they only have 400 plus yuan (approximately US$54) left each month. “We cannot afford to buy some good clothes.” She said, “Some workers labor more than 10 hours every day to earn some more money. They stand all the time, many people faint, from fatigue.”

Mr. Huang said that officials of the Dongguan Municipal Labor Bureau went to the factory yesterday, but the leader of the factory has not given a clear explanation.

More photos

- Original report from The Epochtimes

China: University Graduate Committed Suicide When Could Not Find a Job

ChinaScope Magazine, Sun, 11/18/2007-

At 9:40 on October 31, 2006, a young man jumped to his death from the 7th floor of a student dormitory building at Zhongying College, Quanzhou, Fujian Province. The police found a suicide note. The deceased said he committed suicide because he could not find a satisfactory job and did not want to be a burden to his parents. His relatives said that he was depressed before he committed suicide. [1]

The student, Hong Qiankun, 26 years old, was a third year graduate student in the department of chemical engineering at Tsinghua University, Beijing. He was born in Jingjiang, Fujian.

Hong’s father said sadly that Hong was going to graduate this year. His entire family was proud when he became an undergraduate student at Tsinghua University 7 years ago. Hong had previously been quite outgoing, but became introverted more recently and did not like to talk. He had been on vacation at his aunt’s home in Quanzhou (Fujian) since September because of depression.

In his note, Hong said: “I am sorry, I could not find a job… Dad and Mom, I am not a dutiful son and I do not want to become a burden for all of you. This is my choice.”

Hong’s aunt said Hong chose to go to graduate school after undergraduate because he could not find a good job. However, even as a graduate student, he could find a job. He felt great pressure and was often in a bad mood or sat by himself in a trance-like state. [1]

According to an official study by the Chinese Ministry of Personnel, nearly 60% of the graduate students studied regretted entering graduate school because of frustration in seeking a job [2]. In fact, it is more and more difficult for undergraduate students to find jobs [3]. The employment rate for undergraduate students was 80% for 2002, 75% for 2003, 73% for 2004, and 72.6% for 2005. More and more undergraduate students choose to work rather than to continue their education. [4]

In Liaoning Province, the employment rate in 2005 was 63.6% for undergraduate students and 82.9% for graduate students. [5]

Note:
Please check original report from Chinascope

Nearly 10,000 Workers Protest Corruption in Central China City

By Xin Fei, The Epoch Times, Sep 20, 2007-

For three days starting September 14, nearly 10,000 workers from Luoyang ( city, Henan province, central China) White Horse Group, Co., formerly the Luoyang Cotton and Textile Factory, demonstrated along Shachang Xi Street and Zhongzhou Street to protest corruption among the company leaders. Over 1,000 police were dispatched to suppress the movement. Police beat a number of workers.

During an interview on September 17, several workers told The Epoch Times that during a staff meeting last Friday, company executives stated that the company was in bankruptcy and would undergo restructuring. They would provide assistance of 1,220 yuan ($162) per year for each laid-off worker. Workers, who have long been dissatisfied with corporate corruption, gathered in groups to protest.

According to the workers, during the protest on September 17, company leaders asked workers to return to work. That evening, local television reported that the assistance was increased to 1,364 yuan per year. However, on the morning of September 18, Luoyang White Horse Group executives told workers that they would “definitely not increase the assistance.”

Mr. Liang, one of the protesting workers, said, “The company and the government are in cahoots with each other. They are playing ‘good cop, bad cop’ to fool us. Currently some workers have returned to work, but more workers are thinking of ways to continue the protest. With 1,220 a year, that’s just about 100 yuan a month. How can one live on that? We also don’t know how long the assistance will last.”

Phone calls to White Horse Group were unanswered.

Mr. Liang said, “In the last few days, almost all workers and their family members have come to demonstrate. We even blocked the street. The government sent a lot of police, including an anti-bomb squad, special forces, and plainclothes police. I think maybe every policeman in the city is here. There are at least 1,000 police.”

Ms. Xiao, another participant in the protest, said, “All the police from the city are here. They came in droves. Several workers were beaten, one was sent away in an ambulance.”

Mr. Zhao, another protester, said, “About ten workers were beaten. Then workers joined to protect each other. There was no large-scale bloodshed.”

Mr. Zhao also said that many workers tried to publish up-to-date information on the Internet, but the posts were deleted by the government immediately after posting.

Mr. Zhao said, “I hear that our company was acquired by a company called Desheng. Actually, restructuring and being in bankruptcy is just another way for them to make money. The purchaser and our company have some agreements. Leaders of our company first embezzle money from our company then declare bankruptcy. Through this process, state-owned assets became privately property, and workers’ compensation, assistance, and stock were stolen by the company executives. They also have silent permission from the government to do this.”

Luoyang White Horse Group engages in textiles, clothing, medicine, real estate, mechanical engineering, and trade transactions. It was previously known as the Luoyang Cotton and Textile Factory, founded in 1958. Currently Luoyang White Horse Group has 16 subsidiaries and over 10,000 employees.

- Original report from the Epochtimes: Nearly 10,000 Workers Protest Corruption in Luoyang City

China: Innocent Journalist Released After 2 Years Jail

AFP, 15 Sep 2007-

BEIJING (AFP) — A Chinese journalist imprisoned for two years for posting politically sensitive essays on the Internet said Sunday he had been released.

Li Yuanlong, 47, was detained in September 2005 and convicted of “inciting subversion of state sovereignty” for his essays carried by several overseas websites banned in China.

Li told AFP he was released Friday on completion of his jail term and insisted on his innocence.

“I have never done anything against my conscience, nor anything illegal… I am innocent,” he said.

Li, a reporter with the Bijie Daily newspaper in the southwestern province of Guizhou, was picked up by state security agents at his office on September 9, 2005.

He said he was indicted for his criticism of the Chinese government in several of his articles, including one entitled “On Becoming an American in Spirit”.

“I believe this day will not be not far off: that socialism under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party will crumble,” he wrote.

The piece held the communist regime responsible for the death of tens of millions of people under its “Fascist rule” since it took power in 1949.

He said his reporter status had been revoked and that he was barred from working at any state entities, including China’s state media, for at least two years.

Despite China’s pledge to ease control over the media ahead of the 2008 Olympics, human and media rights groups say its leaders continue to tighten their crackdown on dissent amid increasing social unrest.

Paris-based campaign group Reporters Without Borders said at least 35 journalists as well as 51 cyber-dissidents were currently detained in China.

The watchdog ranks China 163rd out of 167 countries on its global press freedom index.

- Original report from AFP: Chinese journalist freed after two years

Disney China Factory Violates Labour Laws: report

AFP, via Google News, Sep. 12, 2007-

HONG KONG (AFP) — Workers at a Chinese factory making Disney toys are overworked, underpaid, exposed to dangerous toxins and forced to live in filthy conditions, a labour rights group said in a report Wednesday.

The study, released on the second anniversary of the opening of Hong Kong Disneyland, said factory workers complained they were forced to work 28 days a month and up to 15 hours a day.

Staff at Haowei Toys in southern China also are not allowed to take time off during peak seasons, according to the report released by the Hong Kong-based Students and Scholars against Corporate Misbehaviour (SACOM).

“The conditions at Haowei reflect the failure of the Disney system to monitor and respond effectively to violations of the Disney code of conduct and the workers’ rights the code professes to defend,” the report said.

About a dozen activists staged a protest outside the theme park, waving a banner that read “No Disney Sweatshop Toys” and urging the US entertainment giant to improve working conditions.

Staff are paid 2.5 yuan (32 US cents) per hour, 62.5 percent of the legal minimum wage of 4.02 yuan, while overtime premiums are also below the minimum required by law, said the report compiled from interviews with 35 employees.

The study charges that managers fine workers five yuan for toilet breaks that exceed five minutes and 10 yuan for refusing to do overtime work.

The report also said workers in the paint spraying and pad printing departments complained that they were sometimes breathing in chemical and paint fumes for hours due to poor ventilation, exposing them to health risks.

The employees are not given insurance against work injuries, nor are they granted pensions, the study said.

The report includes pictures of filthy communal toilets in the staff dormitory, saying pipes are often blocked, causing waste to spill out.

Walt Disney said it takes “claims of unfair labour practices very seriously, and (will) investigate any such allegations thoroughly”.

It admitted its own investigation had revealed violations at the Haowei factory, adding that action would be taken to rectify the problem.

“Disney is currently working on a factory remediation plan with the licensee who has placed orders with this factory,” it said in a statement.

Hong Kong Disneyland, which opened on September 12, 2005, is struggling to attract visitors. The park would not disclose attendance numbers and would only say it has been given consistently high guest satisfaction ratings.

- Original report from AFP : Disney violates Chinese labour laws: report

Report: Failings of China’s School System is The Root of Child Labour

Press release, China Labour Bulletin-

Small Hands: A survey report on Child Labour in China provides a timely, detailed and insightful analysis of the growing problem of child labour in China. Based on research carried out on the ground in 2005, the report explores both the demand for child labour in China and the supply of child labour stemming from serious failings in the rural school system.

Our researchers talked to government labour officials, school teachers and administrators, factory owners, child workers and their parents to build up a picture of the living and working conditions of child labourers and explore the reasons why these children drop out of school early and go into work.

Because child workers have no ability to protect themselves, they are generally paid less, work longer hours and live in poorer conditions than adult workers. Moreover, because child labour is illegal, very often workers and their employers will develop covert alliances to avoid detection by government and law enforcement agencies, thus driving the problem further underground.

While poverty is clearly an important factor in the creation of child labour, the report identifies the failings of China’s school system as the root cause of the problem. China’s investment in education is only 2.7 per cent of its GDP, less than half the United Nations’ recommended level of funding. Primary and secondary schools in poor rural counties receive minimal, if any, government funding, and students’ parents have for many years provided the bulk of the funding through the payment of various “miscellaneous fees.” This forces parents to make a cost/benefit analysis between the cost of their child’s education, the potential benefits of further education and the immediate benefits of dropping out of school early finding work. Our researchers discovered the drop out rate for middle school students in some areas was around 40 per cent or even higher.

The problem is exacerbated by a school curriculum at both primary and secondary levels that emphasizes academic excellence over broad-based vocational training. Many students drop out simply because they cannot keep-up; while others are weeded out by schools anxious to show off high examination pass rates. And even if rural students do make it all the way to university, they now have very little chance of a good job on graduation, making the benefits of continuing education even more questionable and remote.

In the final section of the report, China Labour Bulletin recommends that the laws on child labour be simplified and clarified and that officials are both equipped and encouraged to effectively implement the law. In order to limit and eventually eliminate the supply of child labour, CLB recommends that the government provide sufficient funding to ensure that the compulsory stages of education in China are genuinely free to all, and that a much greater role be given to non-governmental organizations and social groups in tackling and eroding the socio-economic foundations of child labour supply.

To read the report in full click here (in .PDF).

- Original report from China Labour Bulletin

China: 500 Laid-off Bank Employees Arrested For Protest in Beijing

By Gu Qinger, Epoch Times Staff, Sep 03, 2007-

On August 28 and 29th, former employees of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) gathered outside ICBC’s Headquarters in Beijing to protest being laid-off. At least 1,000 former staff visited the scene within the two days.

(photo: More than 50 special police and 100 policemen show up to arrest 500 former employees./The Epoch Times)

According to an eyewitness, Mr. Wang, on the second day of the protest, approximately 800 employees of the ICBC participated in a sitting protest. Most of them came from the northeastern provinces such as Heilongjiang and Henan. Around 8am, the police arrived and took up guard positions around the protesters.

Mr. Wang said, “At 10:30 am, the special police started to arrest people. As they did so, ten police cars and four buses arrived at the scene. More than 500 protestors were violently arrested and sent to Majialuo appellant escorting center. Some of them escaped, and the others were released after 8 pm.”

(photo: At the scene of the arrests, August 29th./The Epoch Times)

Many protestors tried to explain to the police. The police responded, “It’s useless to tell us. Go, just go and get in the bus. The State financial institutions need to be protected.”

A former employee from Heilongjiang province yelled, “What kind of country is this? Bank jobs are good jobs, so they used the reform to remove the senior staff so that they can fill the positions with their friends and families. The whole country is corrupt, and even more so is the bank. The president of the bank would earn more than a million a year while the bank is in so much debt. This country is finished.”

Another former female employee continued, “ICBC is the largest State-owned bank, and also the most corrupt. An employee working in the credit loans department could easily make a million a year, and use that to bribe the president. That’s why the higher ranking staffs’ relatives all work there.”

Employees were originally promised 8,000 yuan (approximately US$ 1,038) in compensation for their job termination. In the end, they were only paid one quarter of that, and both pension and medical insurances were also cut off.

Since last year, there have been many laid-off ICBC employees from all over the mainland, visiting the Beijing Headquarters. Once there, they demand that full compensation be paid, and many say that they will not stop protesting until it is resolved.

- Original report from the Epochtimes : 500 Laid-off Bank Employees Arrested

Why China Is Trying To Colonize Africa

By David Blair, Telegraph, UK, 31/08/2007-

No one alive at the close of the 19th century could have missed the “scramble for Africa”. A motley collection of robber barons, imperialist ideologues, explorers, rogues and adventurers – the likes of Cecil Rhodes and the appalling Leopold II, King of the Belgians – carved up the continent in the name of five European powers.

Today, few appear to have noticed that a second “scramble for Africa” is under way. This time, only one giant country is involved, but its ambitions are every bit as momentous as those of Rhodes and company. With every day that passes, China’s economic tentacles extend deeper into Africa. While Europe sought direct political control, China is acquiring a vast and informal economic empire.

Reliable information on Beijing’s African adventure is hard to come by. But we do know that trade between China and the world’s poorest continent totalled about £30 billion last year – a sixfold increase since 2000.

China now buys about one third of its oil from Africa, mainly from Angola, where an £800 million deal to develop a new field was signed last May, and from Sudan, where Beijing built a 900-mile pipeline and invested at least £8 billion. China is spending another £1.2 billion on a new offshore oilfield in Nigeria.

Meanwhile, Beijing has acquired mines in Zambia, textile factories in Lesotho, railways in Uganda, timber in the Central African Republic and retail developments in almost every capital.

The reasoning behind China’s new focus on Africa is simple. If its economic boom is to be sustained, Beijing must find more raw materials and new markets for manufactured goods. Chinese oil consumption is forecast to grow by at least 10 per cent every year for the foreseeable future. At this level of demand, its domestic reserves will vanish within 20 years.

Hence the quest for overseas oil. Yet Beijing’s options are limited. America and the Western powers have already snapped up the world’s largest oil reserves. Saudi Arabia and Iraq – with 45 per cent of the world’s oil between them – are in effect closed to China.

So the less developed tracts of Africa are an obvious target. Sudan’s six billion barrels of proven reserves – with more still to be discovered – have become of vital strategic significance to China.

These facts are of deep concern to many Africans. Their governments may welcome Chinese investment, but Africa’s independent voices do not share this enthusiasm. The consequences of China’s new role there have already been catastrophic.

Thanks to Beijing’s interest in Sudan’s oil, President Omar al-Bashir’s regime in Khartoum has received a windfall. Ten years ago, Sudan’s oil revenues were negligible; last year, Chinese investment ensured that they totalled at least £3 billion.

Without this ready cash, Mr Bashir could never have sustained the war in Darfur, where four years of fighting have claimed about 300,000 lives, either from violence, starvation or disease. The military machine that has laid waste to vast tracts of land, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee their homes, was, in effect, bankrolled by Beijing. Moreover, China has sold weapons directly to Sudan, notably Fantan ground attack aircraft.

Elsewhere, China provides a convenient alternative for African leaders spurned by the West for their human rights abuses. Devoid of aid and foreign investment, President Robert Mugabe’s regime in Zimbabwe would be entirely isolated but for China’s backing. Beijing has given Mugabe civilian and military aircraft, and its experts helped design a new mansion for the old dictator, in the style of a Chinese pagoda.

Yesterday, the Chinese government assured Lord Malloch-Brown, the Foreign Office minister responsible for Africa and Asia, that any future aid for Zimbabwe would be purely humanitarian. Whether China will keep this promise is another matter: Mugabe’s Zanu-PF has received Chinese money for at least 30 years; Zanu-PF’s national headquarters in Harare – found, aptly enough, on Rotten Row – was built by China.

The harsh truth is that Beijing has become the ally of choice for Africa’s worst rulers. While China likes to portray itself as a benign force in Africa, free of the historical baggage carried by the former colonial powers, Beijing’s conduct is already resented.

During last year’s presidential election in Zambia, the leading opposition candidate, Michael Sata, campaigned on an explicitly anti-Chinese ticket. Beijing’s investment was, Mr Sata argued, almost entirely worthless for Zambia.

Yes, China had reopened some copper mines, but the workers were being exploited and all health and safety regulations ignored. An industrial accident at one Chinese-run mine claimed 46 lives in 2005. Later, workers rioted over low wages and poor conditions. Meanwhile, local companies were being driven out of business by cheap imports.

While Mr Sata lost the election overall, he won huge majorities in all the areas of Zambia affected by Chinese investment. His defeat prompted a day of anti-Chinese riots in the capital, Lusaka. Every Chinese-owned shop in the city was barricaded to avoid being looted. Meanwhile, shops owned by whites or Asians carried on trading without incident.

Even inside Mugabe’s crumbling domain, it has not gone unnoticed that all three MA-60 aircraft supplied by China to Air Zimbabwe have a terrifying history of engine fires and emergency landings.

While Americans and Europeans have only just encountered shoddy Chinese consumer goods, ordinary Zimbabweans talk of “zing zong” products – by which they mean exports from China which have a tendency to break in your hands.

Like all empires, China’s economic domain in Africa is stirring deep resentment. The wonder is that it has happened so quickly, and where the scramble will end.

- Original report from Telegraph.Co.UK

Workers’ Rights Group Accuses China Toy Factories of Labor Abuses

By DAVID BARBOZA, New York Times, August 22, 2007-

SHANGHAI, Aug. 21 — A workers’ rights group in the United States released a report on Tuesday detailing what it called brutal conditions and illegal practices in Chinese toy factories, many of which supply some of the world’s biggest brand-name toy makers, including Walt Disney and Hasbro.

China Labor Watch, which is based in New York, said that it had investigated eight Chinese factories over the last year and discovered widespread labor violations, including the hiring of under-age workers, mandatory overtime, unsafe working conditions and managers who engaged in verbal abuse and sexual harassment.

In one instance, the group said, a toy factory in the impoverished Guangxi Province hired 1,000 junior high school students. Chinese law forbids employers to hire children under the age of 16.

“Shortsighted policies drive corporations like Hasbro to turn a blind eye to safety — and to ignore the labor conditions in their supplier factories,” the group said in its report.

The report is being issued at a time of growing concern about the quality and safety of Chinese exports, and after a series of large toy recalls involving Chinese-made goods.

The Chinese government, however, has insisted that most Chinese exports are safe and of good quality, and multinational corporations say they have stepped up the monitoring and auditing of Chinese factories.

But some workers’ rights groups say tainted and defective products are a result of a factory system that allows big corporations to outsource to contractors here who routinely violate Chinese labor laws and cheat workers to reduce costs and increase profits.

China Labor Watch assigned part of the blame to multinational corporations that focus on keeping costs low.

Hasbro said in a statement that it would conduct a thorough investigation into the issues raised in the report and would “act swiftly and decisively in making any necessary changes.”

“Hasbro has an excellent record in the arena of product safety and, in light of the recent news from China, we have increased the intensity of our ongoing safety review efforts when it comes to any of our products manufactured both here and overseas,” the statement said.

Disney said in a statement that it and its affiliates take allegations of unfair labor practices seriously, investigate them thoroughly and take remedial action. “We have a firm commitment to the safety and well-being of workers, and fair and just labor standards,” a spokeswoman, Alannah Goss, said in an e-mail statement, according to Reuters.

The report by China Labor Watch is only the latest in a series of reports issued by nongovernmental organizations over the last few years detailing worker abuse in Chinese factories.

Last June, a group of trade unions and nongovernmental organizations accused several Chinese companies that make merchandise for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games of using under-age workers and forcing many to work overtime in unsafe conditions.

The Beijing Olympic organizing committee later revoked the license of at least one company that made Olympic merchandise, saying the company had hired some under-age workers and did not have employee contracts.

Many other companies, including Apple and McDonald’s, have also been the subject of reports by Chinese journalists and workers’ rights groups here that accuse the companies of violating Chinese labor laws. The companies have denied violating the law and said that if they are alerted to violations, they will act.

In response to China Labor Watch’s report, the International Council of Toy Industries issued a statement Tuesday saying that it is working with factory management in countries like China to ensure workers are treated fairly. “Our objective is to alleviate working conditions like those described in the report in order to make sure that workers don’t bear the brunt of poor factory management practices and keep their jobs,” Alan Hassenfeld, a spokesman for the organization, said in the statement.

Many companies, particularly toy companies, have independent auditors who make unannounced visits to factories with contracts from the companies. But critics say auditors are sometimes fooled by factory managers, who are coached in how to deal with them.

- Original report from New York Times : U.S. Group Accuses Chinese Toy Factories of Labor Abuses

Most Wicked Labor Camps in China (1) – Liaoning Masanjia

Liaoning Masanjia Labor Camp

Address:

Masanjia Village, Masanjia Town, Yuhong District, Shenyang City
Liaoning Province, northeast China
Post Code: 110145
Tel: 024-89210822, 024-89212252, 024-89210454

Brief about Masanjia

The Masanjia Labor Camp, also called the “Ideology Education School of Liaoning Province,” is located in a suburb of Shenyang City, and is notorious for its heinous crimes against Falun Gong practitioners and known worldwide for its forced-brainwashing techniques.

Over the past four years and seven months, from July 1999 to February 2004, at least 99 practitioners were murdered there because of their belief in the universal principle of “Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance.” Their ages ranged from 27 to 65 and majority of them were only between 31 and 39 years old.

In one incident that was reported by several news agencies, 18 female practitioners were stripped naked and thrown into the cells of male criminals.

The Masanjia Labor Camp is a fascist camp for the purpose of enslaving prisoners to perform labor for profit. Prisoners must work for extended hours under the most appalling conditions.

The main “business” of the women’s section of the Masanjia Labor Camp is textile production. Not only are the detainees not paid, but also their work hours and workloads are pushed to the limit to “boost productivity and profits.”

Falun Gong practitioners from 14 years of age to over 60 have been forced to do intensive labor in the labor camp. They are routinely forced to work 14-16 hours a day, with no days off. Sometimes when there is a big order, they are forced to work for 36 hours nonstop.Falun Gong practitioners live in the most inhumane conditions. There is no bathroom in the camp. They are not allowed to brush their teeth, or to wash, shower, or change their clothes. Even the time for using the toilet is limited. The food given is minimal and is often rotten.

The horrendous conditions and excessive workload damage the health of the practitioners. Many have swollen legs and experience irregular menstruation. Some even develop atrophy of their buttocks due to the extensive hours of being forced to sit still and work.

Due to exhaustion, some have even fainted while working. However, no matter what physical conditions they are in, and no matter what the state of their health, they are not spared from the hard labor.

Torture methods used in Masanjia Labor camp

Nearly 100 torture methods used at the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp to force Falun Gong practitioners to renounce their beliefs, here we only list the the most commonly used 20 torture methods. ( details including photos see this report)

Torture Names

Torture method 1: body folding
Torture method 2: torturing the arms
Torture method 3: handstand (standing upside-down)
Torture method 4: hanging upside-down
Torture method 5: sealing the mouth
Torture method 6: tie-up
Torture method 7: handcuffing
Torture method 8: sitting with arms raised
Torture method 9: split legs and head against the floor
Torture method 10: sitting on a small stool
Torture method 11: sitting in a basin with cold water
Torture method 12: savage beating
Torture method 13: electric shock
Torture method 14: sitting on metal chair in solitary confinement cell
Torture method 15: sitting on metal chair inside “sardine can”
Torture method 16: force-feeding
Torture method 17: force-feeding through the nose
Torture method 18: handcuffed in “dead person’s bed” while naked and receive force-feeding through the nose
Torture method 19: “golden dragon in the ocean”
Torture method 20: freezing.

Cases of torture

1. Zhang Guizhi, female, tortured to death in Masanjia

“On April 12th, 2003 Ms. Zhang’s family received a notice issued jointly by the Masanjia Labor Camp, the local police station and Liujiawopu Village Committee stating that Ms. Zhang “is receiving emergency treatment because she’s critically ill.”

“By the time Ms. Zhang’s family arrived at Masanjia, she was already dead.

“Family members say there were noticeable wounds on her body, including numerous bruises as well as bloodstains in her nose and mouth.

“Labor camp officials refused to allow the family to take any photographs of the body.

“Initially, police and camp officials declined to answer questions about the cause of her death. When Ms. Zhang’s family members demanded to know why her body was black and blue, the police claimed that she had fallen in the shower, triggering a heart problem that led to her death.

“According to a source familiar with Masanjia Labor Camp, prisoners are only allowed to take showers on specific days. April 12th was not a designated “shower day” for those held in the camp, the source says.”

- excerpt, Report from Falun Dafa Information Center, 8/4/2003, “Falun Gong Woman Exhibits Torture Injuries, Dies in Masanjia Forced Labor Camp“

2. After 23 Days of Torture, a Farm Woman Suffers a Mental Collapse

“While she was in the camp, her hands and feet were handcuffed to a pole. She was not allowed to sleep or to use the toilet facilities. The Masanjia staff wrapped her up in a plastic bag to contain the bad odors emitted from her bodily waste.

“After twenty-three days of torture, Ms. Liu finally broke down physically and mentally and could not recognize her own family. Even so, the police from the Beigang Town Authority still attempted to put her in a brainwashing session. ” ( More details )

3. A Woman’s Breasts Disfigured and Infected from Severe Electric Shock Torture

“Two guards from Benxi, holding electric batons, shouted, “We will see who is tougher!” The two men tore Ms. Wang’s shirt open and shocked her breasts with two electric batons for 30 minutes……. ( more details )

Warning: It is recommended that children and those with delicate sensitivities refrain from viewing these photos.

Photo 1, Photo 2

Cases of forced labor

1. Forced to Make Clothing for Export

“Zhou Yanchun, female, 33, product Inspector of the Shenyang Antibiotic Factory 104 workshop (illegally dismissed because she practices Falun Gong), resident of Haiwang Street construction working committee, New Town District, Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, ID number: 210113680412642

“In the labor camp, Ms. Zhou was forced to make products for export, such as clothing, handicrafts, and embroidered goods, for the “Xinghua Clothing Manufacturer.”

“She was forced to work from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., and sometimes even until midnight, with no breaks, no weekends off, and no compensation.

“Her hands were often swollen and covered with blood blisters, and her finger joints ached from the strenuous work.

“She was only given a limited amount of mildewed cornbread to eat. Her health declined rapidly. Due to the long work hours and appalling conditions, her face and eyes were swollen and she suffered intense abdominal pain. Yet, she was still not allowed to take any breaks.

“If she ever slumped over from weariness or showed signs of fatigue, she would be shocked with electric batons by the guards……. ( more details )

2. Forced to Work for Extended Hours to Make Products for Export

“Falun Gong practitioners, including Ms. Liu Fengmei, Ms. Cui Yaning, Ms. Xie Baofeng, Ms. Dong Guixia, Ms. Jiang Wei, Xu sisters, Ms. Li Ping, Ms. Luo Li, Ms. Li Yingxuan, Ms. Li Zemei, Ms. Bai Shuzhen, have been illegally imprisoned at the Masanjia Labor Camp due to the central government’s persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

“The practitioners are forced to work from 6 a.m. to 12 a.m., making clothing, handicrafts, and embroidery for export.

“They have no breaks, no weekends off, and no compensation. Sometimes they are forced to work for as long as 36 hours without a break.

“From March 7 to 12, 2000, they were forced to work on a batch of products that were waiting to be immediately shipped overseas because the customer had a rush order.

“On March 11, 2000, they were informed that they would have to work overtime. They were forced to work non-stop from 6:30 a.m. on March 11, 2000 to 4 p.m. on March 12, 2000 (totaling 33.5 hours).

“However, on March 12, they had not been able to finish the assigned work. To punish them, the guards did not allow them to eat lunch. In addition, the guards beat or shocked the practitioners with electric batons…… ( more details )

Perpetrators

Camp director: Sun Fengwu, 86-24-89212096 ext206; 86-24-89210262;

Institute director: Su Jing, 86-24-86210074 ext 30; 86-24-89210567; 86-24-89210054;

Prisoner leaders: Shao Li, Xue Fenglu, Yue Qin, Zhang XX, Yu XX, Qiu Ping: 86-24-89210074 ext383;

Zhao Jinghua: 86-24-89212252; 86-24-9240454;

Judicature: Gao Fusheng, office number: 86-24-7340130; Home number: 86-24-7612366; Cell phone number: 86-13130446378;

Vice secretary: Cui Yanlin, office number: 86-24-7340321; Home number: 86-24-7616101; Cell phone: 86-13940816031

More reference:

- Masanjia Forced Labor Camp– Wrecking Lives and Destroying the Human Conscience
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 6

Related:
- List of the Most Wicked Labor Camps in Modern China
- List of China Modern Torture Methods (slideshow)

Rural Women Migrant Workers Shut Out of China’s Economic Boom

Radio Free Asia, 2007.07.27-

China’s economic boom has been forged on the back of a cheap labor supply. What makes it so cheap isn’t just low wages—many workers have no access to industrial accident insurance, health insurance, or pension plans.

RFA’s Mandarin service has learned more about rural migrant workers in China’s big cities by talking to two women who have been sacked by their employers after suffering major setbacks.

“I was standing on a high stool sticking a strip of cloth,” said 47-year-old Chen Qiuzhen. “The cloth broke and I fell off the stool. At the time I was unable to walk, and they had to help me out to get transport.”

Chen traveled to the economically booming southern province of Guangdong from the countryside around Changde city, in the central province of Hunan, at the end of last year, and began working in the Wangniudun packaging plant connected to a Unilever factory in Dongguan city.

In March she sustained injuries following a fall at work, and the hospital diagnosed her with a compression fracture to the 12th thoracic vertebra.

Forced to resign

She remained in hospital for a month after admission, until her employers began to put pressure on her to discharge herself before she was fully recovered.

Initially, the factory asked Chen to pay for the cost of her stay in hospital, as she had no health insurance. They also asked her to resign from her job and go back home, offering her a payment of just 1,000 yuan (U.S.$132).

After several bargaining sessions, the factory finally agreed to pay her hospital bills and compensated her 6,000 yuan for the on-the-job injury. Chen had no other options.

Now, four months have passed since the accident, and Chen’s injury still hasn’t healed, making her unable to sit for any length of time without further damage and injury to her spine. She has no job and no health insurance, and is unsure how long her current savings of 6,000 yuan will last her.

Meanwhile, in the nearby city of Shenzhen, a 20 year-old woman from the southwestern province of Sichuan, went into a psychotic state after witnessing police brutality during a strike of 8,000 workers at the Shenzhen Baoji Arts and Crafts Co. Ltd, her aunt told RFA.

Fu Liangdan’s employer insisted that she be discharged from hospital, too, saying it would pay the hospital bills and medicine charges, and give her the 2,800 yuan (U.S.$370) she was owed in wages, if she agreed to resign from her job and return home.

Employers liable

The company refused to give out any compensation or severance pay on the basis that Fu’s injuries were not caused by an industrial accident.

“There was nothing we could do,” Fu’s aunt, Jiang Chunfeng, said.

“They wouldn’t give us any money. We went to the labor bureau and told them how ill she was, how she hadn’t eaten anything for more than 10 days. I said she would still need medical treatment even after returning home. Her father came over without anywhere to stay or anything to eat, and he was all shaken up and needed medication. I was extremely anxious and so I agreed to their demands,” Jiang said.

Liu Kaiming, a labor expert at the Shenzhen Institute for Contemporary Social Studies, said that according to the Industrial Accidents Insurance Law of the People’s Republic of China, Fu’s injury was not caused by an industrial accident. But he said she should still be entitled to a certain level of care even so.

“This is a designated ‘special acute illness’ requiring treatment of 3-6 months. As such, the hospital fees are payable by the employer, and she should receive 60% of her salary during this time,” Liu said.

A human resources officer at the Baoji Arts and Crafts factory would make no promises about any such benefit for Fu.

No deterrent for companies

“We have conducted this case according to the law. We have given her everything that we are obliged to give her. If you want to know any more you will have to contact people higher up with your queries. We have no further response to make,” said Director He, who declined to give her full name. However, her manager was on holiday and couldn’t be reached at the time of broadcast.

Jiang Chunfeng said Fu’s condition had not improved. She rarely spoke, Jiang said, and said she didn’t know the answer to anything she was asked.

Her case is similar to that of Chen Qiuzhen in that she lacks any kind of insurance, and has lost her livelihood, along with any hope of medical treatment.

Article 73 of the Labor Law of the People’s Republic of China stipulates that “workers shall enjoy social insurance treatment according to law…including retirement, falling ill or suffering job-related injuries…”

Both women were kicked out by their respective employers after they lost the ability to work, and neither the factories, nor society at large, nor the government, has taken any responsibility for their cases. ( …… more details from Radio free Asia…… )

China Foreign Radio Station Correspondent Abandon Post

AFP, Via AfricAsia.com, 26/07/2007-

A correspondent for China’s international radio station who has not been seen since apparently abandoning his post in Zimbabwe three months ago was officially warned on Thursday to return to work.

China Radio International posted an unusual notice in the English-language China Daily newspaper saying that Cheng Qinghua “left his post without authorisation” on April 20.

“He has been absent from work ever since and his action is a serious breach of the work rules of China Radio International,” the notice said.

“Cheng Qinghua is asked to report to work within 30 days from the date of publication of this notice. Otherwise he will be dealt with in accordance with relevant rules.”

A spokesman for China Radio International told AFP on Thursday that Cheng had left his Harare office without informing the radio station.

But other than to say Cheng was aged in his 40s, the spokesman refused to discuss the reporter any further.

Cheng is little known in the Chinese media community, and it appears that the Zimbabwe posting was his first overseas mission.

Searches for Cheng on the English-language pages of the Internet show his dispatches from Zimbabwe only in late last year and early this year, while his name does not return any hits on Chinese pages.

China Radio International is the Chinese government’s only overseas broadcaster and broadcasts in 43 languages, according to its website.

- Original report from AfricAsia.com: China orders missing foreign correspondent to return to post

U.S. Law Enforcement Struggles to Combat China Spys

By David J. Lynch, USA TODAY , July 22, 2007-

Seated at his dining room table on his final Sunday as a free man, engineer Chi Mak was unaware that FBI agents were watching and listening.

For almost two hours, as his wife, Rebecca, stood behind him and government sleuths looked on, Mak copied onto compact disks technical information that he had taken from his office at Power Paragon, a California defense contractor. At 11:13 a.m., when Mak climbed into his brown 1988 Oldsmobile sedan to take the disks to the nearby home of his brother, Tai, the G-men tailed him.

Five days later, as neighbors were preparing for bed, local police and FBI agents swarmed Chi Mak’s single-story wood-frame house in a Los Angeles suburb, arresting him and his wife. Another team of agents pulled Tai Mak and his wife, Fuk Li, out of a security line at Los Angeles International Airport, 25 miles to the west, where they were waiting to board a midnight flight to China. Hidden in their luggage was a disk containing encrypted copies of the unclassified U.S. Navy research Chi Mak had given his brother.

The government, which detailed its surveillance of the Mak family in court documents, would eventually claim the material he disclosed would enable an enemy to track and kill American sailors.

The Oct. 28, 2005, arrests capped a 20-month probe that illuminated the difficulty of combating what government officials say is an aggressive Chinese espionage campaign that vacuums up advanced U.S. technology secrets from defense and civilian companies alike.

“The Chinese are putting on a full-court press in this area. … They are trying to flatten out the world as fast as possible,” says Joel Brenner, national counterintelligence executive. “One of the ways they accelerate that process is economic espionage. If you can steal something rather than figure it out yourself, you save years. You gain an advantage.”

Brenner, who directs the United States’ counterspy efforts in the office of the director of national intelligence, says China’s technology thieving is “the norm” among industrial nations. But if China is not unique, it does stand out — along with Russia, Cuba and Iran — as among the most active nations, Brenner says.

Beijing’s goals aren’t limited to traditional national security interests. The world’s fastest-growing economy operates a shadowy technology bazaar where individuals offering trade secrets find a ready buyer. About one-third of all economic espionage investigations are linked to Chinese government agencies, research institutes or businesses, according to Bruce Carlson of the FBI’s counterintelligence division, who leads the bureau’s efforts to combat Chinese spying.

Since 2001, the number of FBI investigations of suspected Chinese economic espionage cases increased 12%. “The basis for the whole program is money. People (in the USA) are looking to make a buck. China has money to spend,” says Carlson.

China’s technology-targeting differs from classic Cold War-era spying, which pitted American intelligence agents against their KGB counterparts. Along with using intelligence professionals, China seeks to capitalize on some of the thousands of Chinese and Chinese-American engineers, researchers, scientists and students who fill key positions in U.S. industry and academia, say current and former U.S. counterintelligence officials.

“This is not some ‘yellow peril’ witch hunt. … The counterintelligence environment in terms of China right now is just white-hot,” says James Mulvenon, director of the Center for Intelligence Research and Analysis, a Washington, D.C., think tank that advises U.S. intelligence agencies.

Long-running spy plot

In some cases, individuals stealing trade secrets execute Beijing’s orders. That’s what the Justice Department says occurred with Chi Mak, 66, who was born in Guangzhou, was educated in Shanghai and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1985. He obtained a “secret”-level security clearance in 1996.

FBI agents found four Chinese-language “tasking lists” in Mak’s trash, which they say itemized specific technologies that China covets, such as “aircraft carrier electronic systems” and “submarine propulsion technology.” One of the lists also directed Mak, a senior engineer working on power systems for Navy submarines, to join professional associations and attend advanced research seminars.

The Justice Department presented other evidence that alleged Chinese government involvement. An FBI wiretap, for example, heard Tai Mak, 57, nine days before he was arrested, call a man in Guangzhou and identify himself as being from “Red Flower of North America.”

On the other end of the line was Pu Pei Liang, a researcher at Zhongshan University’s Chinese Center for Asia Pacific Studies, which the prosecution said performs “operational research” for China’s People’s Liberation Army. Chinese intelligence operations routinely use the names of flowers, such as “winter chrysanthemum” and “autumn orchid,” prosecutors said.

Especially damaging to Mak were four letters from another Chinese official, Gu Weihao, a relative of his wife’s and a senior engineer at the Ministry of Aviation Industry. Written in the late 1980s, three of the letters were discovered in Mak’s home; the fourth was found in the home of Greg Chung, an engineer for Boeing (BA).

In a May 2, 1987, letter, Gu introduces Mak to Chung and discusses the latter’s upcoming trip to China: “You can discuss the time and route of your trip to China with Mr. Mak in person. … You may use ‘traveling to Hong Kong’ or ‘visiting relatives in China’ as reasons for traveling abroad. … Normally, if you have any information, you can also pass it on to me through Mr. Mak. This channel is much safer than the others.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Staples argued that documents found in Mak’s home dealing with the F-16 fighter and NASA’s space shuttle were from programs that Chung had worked on at Boeing. There is an active grand jury investigation concerning Chung, according to a recent prosecution court filing.

Last month, after a six-week trial, a federal jury convicted Mak — who denied spying and insisted the technical material at issue was publicly available — of conspiracy, two counts of attempting to violate export control laws and failing to register as a foreign agent. The convictions, which carry a potential prison term of up to 45 years, followed guilty pleas by the four other relatives involved in what prosecutors say was a long-running spy plot.

Some driven by greed

Beijing often capitalizes on what might be called espionage entrepreneurs: engineers or executives who exploit their positions in U.S. companies to pilfer corporate data they know will be welcomed in a China that is eager to catch up with the West. “In the vast majority of cases, it’s the almighty dollar,” says Mulvenon. “It’s just pure greed.”

Next month in San Jose, Calif., two men who pleaded guilty in December to two counts each of economic espionage for stealing trade secrets from Sun Microsystems (SUNW) and semiconductor maker Transmeta (TMTA) are scheduled to be sentenced in U.S. District Court. They each face up to 30 years in jail.

Fei Ye and Ming Zhong, former co-workers at Transmeta, based in Santa Clara, Calif., admitted to stealing secrets to produce computer chips for a firm they had established in Hangzhou, about 100 miles southwest of Shanghai. Theirs were the first convictions under the 1996 Economic Espionage Act, which made the theft of trade secrets a federal crime.

Their new company, called Supervision, expected funding from the Hangzhou municipal government and the provincial government of Zhejiang province, renowned as China’s capitalist heartland. The men were working with a professor at Zhejiang University who planned to help them secure additional funding from a national technology research program, according to their plea agreements.

Supervision would “raise China’s ability to develop superintegrated circuit design and form a powerful capability to compete with worldwide leaders’ core development technology and products in the field of integrated circuit design,” according to a corporate charter found at Ye’s home.

Documents discovered after the men were arrested at San Francisco International Airport on Nov. 23, 2001, demonstrate that the Supervision project was highly regarded by Chinese officials. “The project will be extremely useful to the development of China’s integrated circuit industry,” said a Chinese panel of experts, which recommended that “every level of government offer their support toward the implementation of this project.” (…… More details )

- from UsaToday.com report: Law enforcement struggles to combat Chinese spyin

photos: Disabled Children, Beggars, Slavery, or Money Machine?

After read the report by John Ray from The Observer – China’s Disabled Children Are Sold Into Slavery As Beggars- I remembered I used to read a Chinese report on the similar topic, which I was reluctant to believe.

Now again I find out the Chinese story and here’s some pictures to share with you.

(The beggar’s feet tied together by a string and put from the back up on the shoulder)

( All photos are from Watching China website) 

China’s Disabled Children Are Sold Into Slavery As Beggars

As Beijing prepares for the Olympics, racketeers live well off their street army of exploited teenagers

John Ray in Beijing, The Observer, Sunday July 22, 2007-

Nature Has not been kind to Gao Zhou Zhou – though not as cruel as other human beings. Her back is bent and bowed; her legs fold uselessly beneath her. She gets around using a homemade skateboard. Her arms, legs and face are very, very dirty. She doesn’t know her age – she looks perhaps 15 – and she cannot remember her real parents. But she knows the pain of life on the streets of Beijing. ‘When I first came here they beat me so hard I nearly died. They beat me and they beat me,’ she says.

It was three years ago when a man she calls ‘uncle’ came to her village. There was a cash transaction with her stepfather, who was promised the equivalent of £150 in instalments. In the land of the rampant capitalist, this was just another business deal.

Since then, most days from early morning to nightfall, she has been hunched over her pitch – a patch of pavement close to Tiananmen Square, amid the crowds of tourists and shoppers. Most don’t offer a second glance. Some pause long enough to place a few notes into the tin she holds out. On a good day she earns 300 yuan (£20). It goes to ‘uncle’.

‘The man who took me here is a very powerful man. Everybody in the village is scared of him. He can chop off anybody’s arm or leg. Whatever he wants. He’s got men all over China. He told me he will find me wherever I go.’

This is not an isolated story. Another girl, born with a curved spine and legs that can carry her only in a spider-like walk, tells us how she was sold into what amounted to a life of slavery in Beijing. Yang Ping says: ‘On the first day I only earned 20 yuan from begging. They beat me up’. She starts to cry: ‘Can we not talk about this?’

Ping is one of six, five of them girls. She wanted to make a living and her family needed the money. Two years ago, she was lured to Beijing with the promise of a job in a toy factory. Her parents were promised £20 a month.

Arriving in the city, she was told the factory had gone bankrupt and she was forced to beg for her keepers. ‘When they played mahjong and lost a few hundred yuan, there would be no food for a start. And then they would show us violence, just like that. They kicked me on the ground and beat me with a belt. They bought nice clothes and had nice cars. I had nothing.’

In a country still in shock from this summer’s unprecedented public soul-searching over the slave labour used in brick factories, the sale of children, often disabled, to work as beggars is yet another scandal the authorities will have to tackle. Next year Beijing will be both Olympic and Paralympic city. What plans are there to clear the streets of the thousands who make a living from them?

The Beijing government refused to say. But charity workers and officials say the authorities have not yet worked out a plan – at least not one they can talk about. Most observers believe the beggars will be cleaned out, one way or the other. And that would be tough on Li Ji Hai and his wife.

A middle-aged couple, they live in a shabby corner of Beijing and live off the earnings of beggars. One is a baby boy who barely stirs during our visit. ‘He’s sick,’ Li tells us. ‘We found him by the roadside in March.’ The other is a teenager – from the same province as Zhou Zhou. They say they bought him for a few hundred yuan. Each day they send him out to beg on their behalf.

Li walks across the room and grabs the boy’s legs. He shakes them around to demonstrate that he is paralysed from the waist down. ‘I know it’s illegal,’ Li admits. ‘But begging has a long history in China. There’s nothing to hide. Everybody has to make a living.’

According to Kate Wedgwood, the outgoing China director of Save the Children, it is part of a much bigger phenomenon. Amid the huge tide of Chinese workers moving from country to city, as many as a million children have become separated from their parents. Perhaps 150,000 are looked after by the state; the rest, presumably, are fending for themselves. ‘A lot of it is about ignorance,’ said Wedgwood. ‘Often the parents don’t know what existence they are selling their children into.”

Zhou Zhou has pinned her hopes on her stepfather. She gives this message to take to him: ‘Please come and get me. My life here is so bitter.’

We track her stepfather down to a village in Henan, an hour’s flight south of Beijing and a world away from China’s economic miracle. This is dirt-poor country.

Gao Jie Liang, standing in his cramped and muddy farmyard, is slightly built and 5ft tall. No way could he stand up to ‘uncle’ – even if he wanted to. He seems to have no regrets, except to believe that he sold Zhou Zhou too cheaply. She was a burden, he says. She wanted to leave, and it is common for the parents of disabled children to offload them in this way.

The last we see of his stepdaughter is close to Tiananmen Square as night falls. Her ‘uncle’ is about to pick her up. Zhou Zhou will hand over the day’s takings, and she’ll be back here tomorrow. There is no other place for her to go.

· John Ray is ITV News China Correspondent. His report will be shown on the ITV Evening News at 6.30pm on Monday.

- Original report from The Observer

China Slavery Verdict Angers Families- ‘Bigger Fish Off the Hook’

By Ching-Ching Ni, Times Staff Writer, Los Angeles Times, CA, US, Jul. 19, 2007-

The kiln owner in the case, the son of a Communist Party official, ‘got off too easy,’ one victim’s father says.

BEIJING — Family and friends reacted with anger Wednesday after the owner of a kiln operated with slaves who were beaten and forced to work long days was sentenced to nine years in prison even as two aides received far harsher punishment.

Kiln owner Wang Bingbing, the son of a local Communist Party official, was convicted Tuesday of unlawful detention for the use of slave laborers at his brick kiln in Shanxi province.

The supervisor of his plant, Zhao Yanbing, received the death penalty after he was convicted of beating a mentally impaired man to death with a shovel because he wasn’t working hard enough. Foreman Heng Tinghan, found guilty of intentionally injuring workers and illegal detention, received a life sentence.

“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?”

The case, which came to light last month after hundreds of fathers seeking missing children believed to have been sold into slavery pleaded for help on the Internet, exposed the widespread use of slaves at kiln operations in central China.

Tuesday’s sentencing came a week after Beijing executed the country’s top food and drug safety official for taking bribes and approving fake medicines sold at home and abroad.

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.

“The scandal is a blot on socialist China which we must wipe out,” said Shanxi Provincial Court Vice President Liu Jimin.

Chinese media have reported that as many as 1,000 minors had been kidnapped and sold into slavery in rural kilns. Officials say only about a dozen child laborers had been freed in the recent raids, leading some critics to say that the true extent of the scandal is being covered up.

“You can see the major massaging of statistics,” said Robin Munro, research director at China Labor Bulletin, a watchdog group based in Hong Kong.

An additional 95 mostly lower-level officials have been disciplined for dereliction of duty in the brick kiln slavery case, with penalties such as removal from office and expulsion from the Communist Party.

Officials say the size of the dragnet shows an unprecedented commitment to justice, but critics and victims’ families say it lets bigger fish off the hook.

“These guys are scapegoats,” said Zhang Xiaoying, the mother of a 15-year-old boy who had been enslaved and rescued. She is not related to Zhang Shanlin. “They are hired hands. They were just following orders.”

Victims of Wang’s kiln operation said he relied on his father’s clout and bribed police to ignore abuses.

“It’s inconceivable that slave labor and gross physical abuse on the scale it’s been reported could possibly have gone on without full knowledge of local officials,” said Munro. “My guess is too many officials are involved — prosecuting them all would be even worse for the government’s image.”

“This is about local protectionism,” Zhang Shanlin said. “The government should make an example of this by striking down hard.”

- original report from  Los Angeles Times

China: Foreman in Kiln sentenced to death for killing Slave Labor

By Daniel Schearf, VOA News, Beijing, 17 July 2007-

One man has been sentenced to death and at least one other has been given a life sentence in the sensational case of slave labor in northern China.  As Daniel Schearf reports from Beijing, the case uncovered a huge problem in official neglect of forced and child labor.

The sentences were handed down by the Intermediate People’s Court in China’s Shanxi province.  A foreman named Zhao Yanbing was sentenced to death for killing a worker who was enslaved at the brick kiln where Zhao worked.

Zhao’s supervisor, Heng Tinghan, was convicted of beating and enslaving workers, and sentenced to life in prison.  Wang Bingbing, the owner of the kiln and the son of a local Communist Party village chief, was given nine years for illegally detaining workers.

The court said Heng had used agents to recruit workers at train stations with false promises.  Instead of a decent job with good pay, the workers were forced to work up to 18 hours a day with little food and water.  They slept in unsanitary and crowded rooms and were routinely beaten.

The case received widespread publicity inside and outside China and officials at the highest level condemned the situation.  The political importance attached to the case was indicated when the deputy head of the Shanxi provincial high court, Liu Jimin, announced the verdicts on live state television.

Liu said the situation had harmed social order.

“Only by dealing with this severely and according to law … can we face up to such crimes and safeguard citizens’ lives, health and right to freedom, and protect social stability,” Liu said.

The official China Daily newspaper reported that 26 other overseers at the kiln were given prison sentences, but did not elaborate.

The forced labor scandal gained attention after 400 fathers posted a letter on the Internet saying their children had been kidnapped and sold into forced labor at brick kilns in Shanxi and Henan provinces.  The men said they had sought help from local officials and police, but were ignored.

Since the case came to light, the government has mounted a massive search-and-rescue campaign in the region and freed hundreds from forced labor in brick kilns and coal and iron mines.

Twenty-nine children, some as young as eight, have been found working at the kilns.  Chinese media reports say there may be a thousand or more children still working in slave-like conditions.

China’s official Xinhua News Agency says 95 party officials and civil servants have been punished and 33 officials have been fired for not preventing the forced labor.

- original report from VOA News : China Kiln Worker Sentenced to Death in Slave Labor Case