In the wake of the brick kiln scandal in Shanxi Province, a sweatshop in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province was put in the spotlight. On July 7, 2007, Wang Haofeng, a journalist famous for his exposure of illegal schemes, found this factory and risked his life to shoot a series of pictures that he published on his website (http://whfjj.blog.moobol.com).

Shockingly, this sweatshop was exposed by the media and closed down by the government six years ago, yet has never ceased operation and even expanded. These pictures show what a sweatshop is all about, showcasing dingy rooms where workers are occupied with dirty cotton. Some are sleeping on the floor and one photo shows a finger chopped off by a dangerous machine. Yesterday, a correspondent with Guangzhou-based Information Times telephoned Wang Haofeng for an interview after seeing the post on his webpage.

Wang said that the factory was condemned in 2001 for exploiting child labor. The escaped children, abused and denied their pay, reported the factory. The government then fined the owner and shut down operations; however, illegal business resumed again soon after the crackdown.

This cotton processing factory, neighboring a funeral home, uses dirty cotton yarn and cotton cloth disposed of by the funeral home as raw material. With its sooty look, this material the Chinese call "black cotton" is processed by the sweatshop into bedding and pillow forms to be sold nationwide.

The working conditions of the factory are horrible; its shops have no windows, lighting, or even a ventilator in the baking hot summer of Wuhan. The choking dust is unbearable for anyone else. Wang said he didn't manage to check all the shops, but the one he examined had at least ten workers.

Workers tried to tell Wang how they suffer from pain in their lungs and the backbreaking labor. They are mostly workers driven by dire poverty instead of being forced laborers. The local government is urged to help these workers and eliminate such sweatshops.

(China.org.cn by Zhang Wenyuan July 11, 2007)