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Chinese children sold 'like cabbages' into slavery
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Reuters
Posted online: Tuesday , April 29, 2008 at 08:42:59
Updated: Tuesday , April 29, 2008 at 08:42:59 Print Email To Editor Post Comments
Beijing, April 29: Thousands of children in southwest China have been sold into slavery like "cabbages", to work as labourers in more prosperous areas such as the booming southern province of Guangdong, a newspaper said on Tuesday.
China announced a nationwide crackdown on slavery and child labour last year after reports that hundreds of poor farmers, children and mentally disabled were forced to work in kilns and mines in Shanxi province and neighbouring Henan.
"The bustling child labour market (in Sichuan province) was set up by the local chief foreman and his gang of 18 minor foremen, who each manage 50 to 100 child labourers," the Southern Metropolis Newspaper said.
"The children generally fall between the ages of 13 and 15, but many look under 10," it added.
The newspaper said 76 children from the same county, Liangshan, had been missing since the Chinese Lunar Year festival in February, 42 of whom had already left the region to work.
"The youngest kids found in the child labour market were only seven and nine years old," it said.
According to a contract exposed by an undercover reporter, a child labourer is paid 3.5 yuan ($0.50) an hour and must work at least 300 hours a month.
"These kids are robust and can do the toughest work," a foreman was quoted as saying, as he pulled a scrawny girl to stand beside him, the paper said.
Xinhua news agency said the county government had sent officials to rescue the children, but some were unwilling to leave, having been sold into slavery by their parents or volunteering to work themselves.
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U.S. officials consider China to be a leading espionage threat due to its aggressive efforts to expand capabilities. How did knowing that color the visit, or did it? How would you feel about reciprocating such a visit on U.S. soil?
The espionage thing is real … I'm not naive to think it doesn't happen with other countries, as well, but it's certainly happening with China. It's disconcerting.
I'd like to think, though, that if in an ideal world, if we can come closer together, there's less fear, less apprehension … and an acceptance that friends don't spy on each other. I don't know--that may be idyllic, that may be decades in the coming. I'd like to think that if we are able to do some of the things that we talked about during this visit, the end result would be much less of that.
[Extending a return invite is] going to be one of the first things that we do here. It's in process right now, to invite [Admiral Wu] to the U.S. sometime in the near future, so we can take him to some of our Marine bases and show him something analogous to what they showed me.
According to the most recent annual report to Congress on its military capabilities, China continues to accelerate the pace and scope of its military modernization plan. This report also highlights that the modernization plan is fueled by preparation for contingencies in the Taiwan Strait and the possibility that the United States could intervene. What does this ramp up signify to you?
I don't think anybody knows for sure. I don't think that we know--I certainly didn't uncover as a result of this visit --what the Chinese long-term strategy is … China is a big fish. And I accept any nation, especially with the industrial might and the economic might that China has, has a reasonable expectation to be able to protect themselves. I think it's fitting that China has a substantial military.
I think that if even tensions do settle over Taiwan, China will continue to develop a military that is more technologically advanced than it is now. I think they want to make it a more professional Army, Marine Corps and Air Force. They've got some ways to go, but they've made significant progress over the last several years.
They've got some ways to go. How so?
Their perspective is that they're building a force that has no combat experience … That's both a blessing and a curse if you're a military man, because you don't have combat-experienced leadership. At the same time, neither have you lost some of your great young men and women in the service.
That they've got some very good hardware is evident. I had a chance to ride on their version of the expeditionary fighting vehicle [EFV]. They would not--it was the only thing they would not do--put it up on plane for me and go 30 knots across what was relatively smooth seas. [The Marine Corps is aiming for its own EFV, currently under development, which can launch from an amphibious ship, ride atop waves to the shore and convert into an armored personnel carrier.]
Why not?
The admiral who was down in the south there said, "No, I'm not going to do that. Admiral Wu will have to order me personally." So there you've got some old-think, that we don't show them all our cards and we don't do what they ask us to do just because they're visiting.
Given the Corps's current commitments in Iraq and now Afghanistan, would Marines be able to take on a contingency in the Asia-Pacific region?
We can take on contingencies still. We are hard-pressed … We've got units in the states who are at various levels of training. We've got a reserve, and that's what they do--they respond to emergencies. In the event of a crisis, the Marine Corps would be able to fashion a response. It would not be the same response as it was in 2001, obviously, but it would still be very capable.
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