Entry 6 – China’s Cultural Revolution #2

Introduction

China’s second cultural revolution is marked by, according to academic sources, include a democratized cyberspace culture without borders, or a distinct loss of “Chinese tradition and identity” through Western influence (for the better or worse). I say, however, a culture is deep-rooted – transcending some new fad or behaviour – but goes into core beliefs and values of the Chinese people. And an evolving culture from a burgeoning capitalist mentality must be overthrown, this time with a greater revolution than the world has ever seen.

Newsflash: June 16-17 to July 7 2007, The Straits Times

“BEIJING – Government officials and the police were accused on Friday of turning a blind eye to a slavery ring in China in which over 1000 people were forced to work in brutal conditions… more than 450 young men and children have already been rescued from a string of brick factories in Henan and Shanxi provinces…”

“The web of exploitation started a year ago… they hatched a plan: to exploit the rich earth of the northern province of Shanxi and the cheap labour of its neighbour, Henan.”

“…the rural labourers… had been lured from train stations in neighbouring provinces and brought here to churn out bricks round the clock without pay, with just steamed buns and cold vegetables as sustenance… constantly watched by six thuggish henchmen and six ferocious dogs…”

“Swift justice is being meted out to those involved in the slave scandal to meet a swelling tide of (online) public anger. Wang Bingbing – who owned the illegal brick kiln, right across the family home – was arrested, and his father Wang Dongji, Communist Party chief of Shanxi’s Caosheng village, has been stripped of his post and his assets frozen.”

“Following that case, massive police raids across Henan and Shanxi have freed more than 560 slaves, including children and the intellectually disabled…”

“unethical… slipshod… profit driven…”

“The local authorities had shielded exploiters with a “protective umbrella”, and worse, the police had obstructed parents’ attempts to rescue trapped child slaves.”

Personal Reflection

The Slave Scandal

The slavery in the northern Shanxi province has driven home the full meaning of the word “dark”. To lower production costs in a growing brick market, the son of the village chief corroborated with the police, and was given freedom to exploit slaves they obtained from nearby provinces.

“They were paid off by the owner. The whole village was his.”

- Chen Chenggong, on the relationship between the local policemen and the owner of the brickyard. He was one of the 34 abducted in the illegal Caosheng village brick kiln.

The workers were brutally tortured, given little sustenance, and above all, were made to produce bricks without rest throughout day. At night, their bed was the bricks they laid down. But worse still, for all their hardship, they weren’t given money – they were slaves (but were promised 800 yuan a month).

How it all started

I can’t put to words the feelings of grief and disgusted-ness churned together. (still trying to find the right word) Over the past few days, you see the workings of the Mr Hyde, the inhumane part of vile, unscrupulous humans who drove themselves to use such torture.

Hailed by throngs of angry protesters as “one of the most shameless and ruthless incidents occurring in modern China” and (in my opinion) humanity at its lowest ebb, one of the rescued teens rightly said, “I hope they are shot”.

Besides using young men, the village chief’s son also ensnared mentally retarded people and children – how dark, how dirty, how downright vicious could a human get to achieve his ends?

Coming to terms with slavery

Sceptics claim that where global equity is concerned, it is merely the light at the end of the tunnel. They say that inequity and the poverty vicious circle has been with us since time in memorial, and from all historical efforts thus far, is impossible. My view complements this, but through this little response, I’d like to see if I could “break my way out” and come to terms with slavery.

What happened, Mr China?

“I just wanted to scare him. When I raised the shovel over him, he unexpectedly rushed towards me. I raised the shovel and it came down on his head. He did not get up.”

- Zhao Yanbing, on prime-time state television

The abuse of power in this circumstance is staggering – imagine policemen walking into the kiln, delivering a “fine” (for illegal land use) of 2000 Yuan, then walking out – without seeing any deprived, starving or otherwise handicapped slaves? And what about the “law enforcement agencies” and “local government officials”? Truth is, the son (Wang Bingbing) of the village chief had bought over the police and built an empire solely on forced labour. These “incestuously cosy” ties between the two central tenets of the Communist’s Party local administration had silenced dissent – even if the villages knew about what happened 10 metres into the huge kiln doors, who would have spoken up against the local party boss?

“We wouldn’t dare to say a word. He’s the head… And there are lots of their relatives in this village.”

- Mr Shen, a villager

“Even Wang’s own sister in law, who lives in the same family house compound next to the brickyard, claimed she ‘does not know anything’.”

Why, Mr China, Why?

Graft [grāft]

-noun

1. the acquisition of money, gain, or advantage by dishonest, unfair, or illegal means, esp. through the abuse of one’s position or influence in politics, business, etc.
2. a particular instance, method, or means of thus acquiring gain or advantage.
3. the gain or advantage acquired.
4. practising graft.

“In Wuxi, a manufacturing boom town in eastern China, water supply for more than two million residences was shut down for days after Lake Tai, is main water source, was hit by a massive algae bloom in late May…

(Officials) steered clearly of explain why they failed to heed the pollution warnings by experts for years… and also did not account for why they failed to clean up the lake.”

Wuxi officials blamed the unusually hot weather and low water levels for algae bloom, and when the Central Government knocked on their doors, trotted out five lowly officials from another county to take the flak.

“In Xiamen (90 minutes by plane from Wuxi), thousands of people marched to the local government office to oppose plants to build a petrochemical plant that would be located near villages, school and residential areas.

Put on the defensive by the unprecedented display of “green People Power”, the Xiamen (local) government suspended the project… a decision that costs the government a massive 80 billion yuan in lost economic activity.”

In any other city in the world, the local administrators would find their heads rolling soon enough, but not so in China.

I identified three main reasons for graft – namely moral decay, government negligence or intentional dereliction of duty and finally, economic growth.

The first reason requires little explanation, but the second deserves mention. All political punishment is decided by the Communist Party’s Central Government, and senior leaders are widely considered to be immune to this. Remember Chen Liangyu? Sure, he could have misused billions of yuan in social security funds to “bankroll illegal investments”, the punishment could “befit the alleged crime” – but he was President Hu Jintao’s direct political rival on economy policies. The Wuxi environmental crisis occurred in Hu’s “power base” (Communist Youth League), so top-ranking officers there can continue with their ties with businesses for more greenery in Lake Tai.

And last, my main point here – economic growth. China’s brick market is flourishing due to immense development, and what better place to make bricks than in the rural areas? Competition is increasingly intense and stiff in all sectors across her board.

Why, Mr China, Why?

Like the algae bloom, employing exploited, cheap forced labour is increasingly common, and cases of abuse, torture and slavery follows suit. The only difference is that it’s on a global scale this time.

Trafficking is growing in places besides China, forced labour is widespread in rapidly developing countries like India and Pakistan. The global slave workforce, including women, children, and the mentally impaired is estimated at 27 million. The Myanmar regime also oversees forced labour.

“If you’re not doing it, your competitor down the road probably is.” Mr Munro (China Labour Bulletin, Hong Kong) speaks the truth. And it follows an exponential pattern, and dominoes are more than just unstoppable. In fact, economic growth and graft grow hand in hand, with miasmatic corruption fuelled by insatiate greed of swinish humans.

The Heart of the problem is…

the disempowerment of the poorest of the poor.

They have no say.

They have nothing to contribute, nor have their parents, in the global economic system.

Simply put, the market did not reward saving lives or anything close to that – nor did any government sponsor it. It simply isn’t worth it.

Their fathers and mothers died, with no power nor voice in the market, and it is highly unlikely that these slaves – with six bulldogs glaring at their every move – ever will.

Besides issues of morality and dereliction of duty, the key – the very key – change that China must implement is how to help, how to benefit, how to actually effect distinguishable change in its rural poor. While the Communist Party should be lauded for eradicating extreme poverty by more than 70% since 1968, there is an ominous danger that awaits the nation. The poor are gradually – but surely – once again feeling the full weight of the word “poor”.

Then why cultural revolution?

Unscrupulous manipulation of the “new poor” is the reason why such unmitigated torture of fellow human beings continues without boundaries, both on a state and national level. It is the reason why those who have obtained some power – however small – have leveraged this wealth and status gradient, with disastrous and (I believe) unimaginably cruel results.

By less ill-treatment of the downtrodden, the Chinese will tackle with key issues like more effectively with problems like algae-infested lakes, huge budget deficits and corruption, through reduced emphasis on political might and accountability.

The state-controlled media (Xinhua being the official state newspaper) and internet (which the fathers of the missing, abused children used to submit an online petition which received national interest) must also play up these events as it did. Breaking free of the Orwellian 1984 concept that “government is always good” is one of the preliminary steps to paradigm shifts in China’s business cultural landscape – both in terms of ethics and human reactions.

The above examples show beyond measure that the people’s political will matches the government’s.

In Conclusion…

The use of lead in painted products, the exposure of ruthless officials silencing environmentalists who were later proven dead right, the abuse of status to draw slave labour – these are all testament to the world that China’s cultural revolution, that of the people’s direct involvement in traditional “affairs of the state”, is just about to begin.

It’s never a problem of too little caring, it’s a problem of getting people to shout out loud. Human awareness has unprecedentedly redefined the role of the media and rewritten the function of the internet countless times.

Mr China, when you stop denying heaping blame (by the US) placed on you for product quality, when you stop limiting the power of your people, and when you do finally realise that your people do have power, you will be quite ready to succeed.

References

• “China slave scandal deepens”, 16 June 2007, TODAY 12- AFP
• “Teenager toiled as slave at illegal kiln”, 16 June 2007, ST 8, China – Sim Chi Yin
• “One ran the kiln, the other supplied the slave workers”, 19 June 2007, ST 6, Asia – Sim Chi Yin
• “Slave trade: Chinese govt cracks the whip”, ST 8, China – Chua Chin Hon
• “Rescued teens recalls brickyard horrors”, 22 June 2007, ST 8, China – Ruzhou (Henan)
• “Slavery probe officials caught loafing”, 23 June 2007, ST 10, China – Beijing, AFP
• “When there’s graft, there’s slavery”, 23 June 2007, ST 11, China – Reuters
• “China slave scandal: Village of fear”, 24 June 2007, Sunday Time, Think 32 – Sim Chi Yin
• “Hard slog for brick workers in China”, 25 June 2007, ST 8, China – Sim Chi Yin
• “Moral decay eats away at the Chinese”, 7 July 2007, ST 34, Asia Focus -= Chua Chin Hon
• “China closes 180 factories for churning out tainted food”, 28 June 07, ST 6 Asia, APF & Reuters
• “How could you let these children die?”, Today, August 25-26 2007, Hot News – Bill Gates
• “Product Safety: No easy way to apportion blame” – Tracy Quek

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Wong Yong Sheng (29) 3C Raffles Institution

TERM 3

502 words (exclusive of the news article, references, footnotes & external quotations)