Posted on 04/29/2008 7:18:04 AM PDT by traumer
BEIJING (Reuters) - 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 labor 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 neighboring Henan.
"The bustling child labor 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 labor market were only seven and nine years old," it said.
According to a contract exposed by an undercover reporter, a child laborer 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.
($1=7.002 Yuan)
WOW! Work “in kilns”?
Golly, where is the outcry from the black community in the U.S.??
And where is the female black messiah, Oprah, when the world really needs her?
Probably packing for the Olympics in China.
Yeah, but they have free health care.
What's Chinese for "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?"
LOL.
Does this mean they can be found in the produce section of the grocery store? A serious story with that description tossed in makes me think that the writer's mind and heart will be on something else tomorrow.
I guess I was absent from history class the day they talked about cabbage slaves..
""Being different does not mean one is deficient. It simply means one is different, like snowflakes, like the diversity that God loves."
.........The ChiComs are just a different snowflake........./s
“Does this mean they can be found in the produce section of the grocery store?”
Either there or in chinese pottery.
But in good news- Thanks Heavens the Chinese have cracked down on foreign adoptions and slowed them to a crawl-
(big sarc)
The Chinese mistreating their children!! I’m shocked! Shocked I tell ya!
If this were Africa we would all be subjected to a three hour American Idol session.
This is only second to the great turnip slavery scandal. The great vegatable rebellion of 1427 freed the majority from opression. That is why to this day so few people eat turnips. It is in their memory.
You must be thinking of the Nat Turnip Rebellion.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Sassy is going to love this. She already boycotts China & says they are vile among things...Wait until I read her this. Prayers for those poor children. Hmmm I wonder if they got this term from those Cabbage Patch dolls?
Ah, yes, ‘free trade’.....ask these kids if they feel ‘free’.
Only people without conscience can defend this.
On the other hand if Sassy doesn't straighten up you can tell her you're going to sell her like a cabbage to go work on a farm.
lolol
Yeah that about says it all.
The Free-er the Market, the Free-er the People.
Bans on limiting employment opportunities such as child labor laws violate the citizen’s inherent right to work and sell his labour as he sees fit in accordance to the demands of the market. Any such restriction is COMMUNISM.
50 cents an hour and 300 hours a month means these kids are earning 1800 a year. Not bad for a Chinese laborer.
People are so ridiculously coddled these days. Nobody ever got ahead in life by being perpetually outraged, offended, or (my favourite) by raising “awareness/activism”. People get ahead by taking the hand life dealt them and working hard and working smart. If people really wanted to help these kids instead of indulging in their own moral superiority, they would give advice on how these children could reinvest their earnings into a business of their own.
300 hours a month? Ten hours a day, day in and day out with no time off? And that's not bad?
You're sick.
I boycott China, too, when it's humanly possible because of it's human rights violations, like this.
cmdjing is a communist agent who frequently trolls China related threads to push the Hu Jintao clique propaganda. You will notice he skipped right over the selling children into slavery part of this story.
Keep your poison & bird flu in your country. And by the way your men spit on rugs in the Atlantic City casinos. Instead of lecturing me, give them a lecture on manners! I have never liked trolls & I sure dislike ones from China.
Well, maybe he can tell his commie buddies that the child abuse and human rights violations his country engages in are the very reason people boycott China.
People need a chance to make it for themselves but selling children into slavery to work 10 hours days, day in and day out, is NOT the way to do it and I will not participate in it.
Those are some great links. Thanks.
You’re welcome. I was amazed at how much is made in the U.S.A. still. Just have to look for it. I’m going to as much as possible now. I don’t want to give money to child slavers who shoot monks and want to nuke our cities.
Why does this come as a surprise?
This is horrible, but it is in keeping with Chinese culture though the ages. In some ways, China never changes.
And isn’t $.50/hour something like the prevailing wage in the PRC? The question is, do the children get any of it?
"children and mentally disabled were forced to work"
"Bans on limiting employment opportunities such as child labor laws violate the citizen’s inherent right to work and sell his labour as he sees fit in accordance to the demands of the market."
huh? uuuuuuuhhhhh, I'm no expert, but, uuuhhhh, if they have the right to be sold as slaves then shouldn't they also have the right to NOT be sold as slaves?
"People are so ridiculously coddled these days."
Yeah, I agree. Why aren't more ten year olds working 75 hours a week in a silver mine? It's ridiculous isn't it? (haha)
"People get ahead by taking the hand life dealt them and working hard and working smart."
They'll get ahead by
"If people really wanted to help these kids instead of indulging in their own moral superiority, they would give advice on how these children could reinvest their earnings into a business of their own."
Good job! You hit the issue on the nail! After the kids spend some of their salary on food, water, and shelter, they can use "the rest of it" to start their own business.
Oh, one more perplexing question. What kind of business should they start? hmmmm, they could
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.