Last week Chinese authorities rescued 500 people–many of them children–from brick factories in Shanxi. The workers had been sold to these kilns by unscrupulous labor agencies and then kept there against their will as slaves, working 18 hours a day under the constant threat of physical abuse. All the while, authorities in the province turned a blind eye to the goings-on at the kilns. (ESWN has translations of Chinese media reports on the incident. Some of the details differ from later accounts in the domestic and foreign press.)
Earlier this month, a group of distraught parents stormed the kilns trying desperately to rescue their children, only to meet stiff resistance from the usual suspects–thugs hired by the kiln owners with support from corrupt local officials.
Frustrated and frantic, the parents went online, writing an open letter and posting it on Dahe. Eventually the letter ended up on the popular Chinese website Tianya and the subsequent internet frenzy forced the government’s hand. Police raided the kilns and freed the workers. As of this week, 168 people have been arrested in connection with the incident.
Such was the outrage that even the normally Kool Aid-soaked editors of the China Daily felt compelled