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« on: July 19, 2007, 12:58:21 AM »
They don't fuck around with slavery either...
Slaves' families are angry with kiln owner's sentence
By Ching-Ching Ni, Times Staff Writer
5:31 PM PDT, July 18, 2007
BEIJING -- Workers' families and friends reacted with anger Wednesday after the owner of a kiln operated with slaves who were beaten and forced to work long days was sentenced to nine years in prison even as two aides received far harsher punishment.
Kiln owner Wang Bingbing, the son of a local Communist Party official, was sentenced Tuesday after being convicted of unlawful detention for the use of slave laborers, including minors, at his kiln in Shanxi province.
The supervisor of his plant, Zhao Yanbing, received the death penalty after he was convicted of beating a mentally impaired worker to death with a shovel because he wasn't working hard enough. Foreman Heng Tinghan, found guilty of intentionally injuring workers and illegal detention, received a life sentence.
"We are very angry. This sentence is too lenient," said Zhang Shanlin, father of a young man so badly beaten and burned he still cannot walk without assistance. "The owner got off too easy. Without him, how could they have enslaved so many people?"
The case, which came to light last month after hundreds of fathers seeking missing children believed to have been sold into slavery pleaded for help on the Internet, exposed the widespread use of slaves at a number of kiln operations in central China.
Tuesday's sentencing came a week after Beijing executed the country's top food and drug safety official for taking bribes and approving fake or deadly medicines sold at home and abroad.
Worried about the latest scandal's potential to further tarnish the country's international reputation, officials have cracked down on 7,500 small kilns across central China and slapping more than a dozen kiln owners and foremen with jail terms.
Chinese media have reported that as many as 1,000 minors were involved in the various operations. Officials say only six child laborers had been freed from the recent raids, leading some critics to that the true extent of the scandal is being covered up.
"The scandal is a blot on socialist China which we must wipe out," said Shanxi Provincial Court Vice President Liu Jimin.
Another 95 mostly lower-level officials have been disciplined for dereliction of duty in the brick kiln slavery saga, with penalties ranging from removal from office to expulsion from the Communist Party.
While officials point to the size of the dragnet as an unprecedented commitment to justice, critics and victim families say it lets bigger fish off the hook.
"These guys are scapegoats," said Zhang Xiaoying, the mother of a 15-year-old boy who had been enslaved and rescued. She is not related to Zhang Sanlin. "They are hired hands. They were just following orders."
Victims of Wang's kiln operation said he relied on his father's power to pay off local police who ignored abuses.
"It's inconceivable that slave labor and gross physical abuse on the scale it's been reported could possibly have gone on without full knowledge of local officials," said Robin Munro, research director at China Labor Bulletin, a watchdog based in Hong Kong. "My guess is too many officials are involved, prosecuting them all would be even worse for the government's image."