2007 Chinese slave scandal

The 2007 Chinese slave scandal was a series of forced labour cases in Shanxi, China. Thousands of Chinese people including children had been forced to work as slaves in illegal brickyards, and tortured by the owners of the brickyards. As of June 2007, approximately 550 people have been rescued from such situations.

Background
Shanxi is located in Loess Plateau in northern China which is known for its rich clay deposits which are easier and cheaper to mine than coal. Through corrupt relationships with officials, slave "bosses" opened illegal brickyards. Due to scarcity of labor in Shanxi, some factories outsourced production to middlemen who recruited workers from other provinces, making huge profits for the bosses. For example, it was reported that Wang Bingbing, the owner of a brickyard located in Hongdong County, Linfen, is the son of Wang Dongyi, a secretary of a CCP branch. The owner outsourced the brickyard to Heng Tinghan from Henan. The brickyard produces 10,000 bricks per day. The market price of 10,000 bricks is about 2,000 to 3,000 yuan; the owner, however, paid only 360 yuan to Heng per 10,000 bricks produced.

Revelation
The existence of illegal brickyards was first reported to authorities in 1998. On 1 May, Chen Jianjiao, a representative of the Shanxi People's Congress, received a telephone call from a laborer who had escaped from an illegal brickyard. The escaped man also wrote to the chairman of the Shanxi People's Congress. As a result, slave rescue operations were carried out by provincial government authorities without notifying local officials. Over 150 slaves, three of them child laborers, were freed from these illegal brickyards.

There have been continuing reports of cruelty committed at these illegal brickyards since 2004. On 7 May 2007, Henan TV Metro Channel reported the case of five minors around sixteen years old who had disappeared from the environs of Zhengzhou Railway Station. Having heard of earlier instances of child laborers being kidnapped for brickyards in Shanxi, their parents suspected their children might be found there. Two months later these five were among fifty minors from Henan who were found at an illegal brickyard. Human traffickers had sold them to brickyards for 500 Yuan each.

On 10 May, reporters from Henan Television, accompanied by two parents, visited the sites of some illegal brickyards in Shanxi undercover. Reporters later visited many illegal brickyards in Yuncheng and Jincheng. The conditions they found were clearly those of slavery.

Labor conditions
The brickyard owners had purchased laborers from human traffickers to use as slaves. The slaves included children as young as eight years old and teenagers. Moreover, brickyard owners hired guards and wolfdogs to watch their slaves. These slaves were forced to work over sixteen hours every day and any mistakes were punished by brutal torture.

One teenager who was rescued from an illegal brickyard said that, during his slavery, he had been taken to another brickyard by his boss to watch another slave being fed to a meat grinder.

Investigation
Hebei, Guangdong and Xinjiang provinces were also reported to have similar brickyards.

Government response
As the scandal received immediate media attention, it also caught the eyes of the country's major leaders, including President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao. Governor Yu Youjun of Shanxi province offered an unprecedented self-criticism. Yu resigned as part of a wider reshuffle on 30 August 2007, but (as of early September 2007) it appears likely that he will be promoted after the 17th Party Congress.

In June and July 2007, 570 people in Shanxi and Henan were freed by the Chinese government. Of those rescued, sixty-nine of them were children. In response, the Chinese government assembled a force of 35,000 police to check northern Chinese brickyards for slaves, sent dozens of brickyard supervisors to prison, punished ninety-five low level officials in Shanxi province for dereliction of duty, and sacked twenty-four. One brickyard foreman, Heng Tinghan, was sentenced to life in prison, and an employee of his, Zhao Tanbing, earned the death penalty for killing a mentally handicapped slave. However, no senior officials were held accountable.

Blue Ribbon Campaign
A group of lawyers from Guangdong created the "Blue Ribbon Campaign" on the internet to promote awareness of the situation of children who are kidnapped and taken to these brickyards.