Real Slavery Found in China, the Host of Olympics 2008

A seemingly trivial article posted on a Chinese discussion forum on June 7, 2007, uncovered a real case of child slavery in Shanxi, China. In less than a week, this article has attracted more than hundreds of thousands of views. Chinese citizens from all over China rushed in to discuss how an alleged 1000 child slaves abducted from the Henan province and eventually sold to the Shanxi province could be rescued.

The article described the child slavery in Shanxi as a tragedy resulting from the ignorance and indifference of the government officials in Shanxi, possibly due to corruption or alliance with unethical Shanxi businesses.

On June 16, in an interview with New York Times News Service, Liu Cheng, a professor of labor law at Shanghai Normal University explained that the incident is a typical example of a government-business alliance. Forced labor and child labor in China are illegal, but some local governments don't care too much.

The following are two videos posted by youtubers "daughterofchina" and "noolympics" about Shanxi child slavery:

Reportedly, until June 19, Chinese government officials announced that 20 suspects accused of slave abduction have been arrested and 300 slaves have been freed. However, there has been no mention of which local government officials in the Shanxi province are responsible for the incidient that has last for more than a few years now.

References:
Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-china1jun16,1,433682.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

Tianya Public Forum
http://cache.tianya.cn/publicforum/Content/free/1/926643.shtml

Dwnews
http://www4.chinesenewsnet.com/gb/MainNews/SinoNews/Mainland/2007_6_19_3_48_33_774.html