Slavery in The 21st Century

H UMAN R IGHTS & HUMAN W ELFARE
local enterprises. Although not dealing with the ways in which the system is vulnerable to
exploitation, this article lays the foundation for an understanding of the role local officials play in
the corporate world, and how easily a conflict of interest can form, resulting in corruption or
labor abuse.
Seymour, James D. 1998. New Ghosts, Old Ghosts: Prisons and Labor Reform Camps in China.
Armonk: ME Sharpe, Inc.
Annotation: Seymour’s book about prison labor camps in China is built upon fieldwork in three
Chinese regions, on public and private documents, and on interviews with prisoners, guards, and
local officials. The author disagrees that prison labor is a lucrative source of income for the
Chinese government. Rather, he claims that the Laogai system is inefficient and unprofitable,
especially since international scrutiny on forced labor exports has increased. A well-documented
work, Old Ghosts, New Ghosts counterbalances previous reports on the Laogai system by
Human Rights Watch and by Harry Hongda Wu.
Sun, Yan. 2004. Corruption and Market in Contemporary China. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University
Press.
Annotation: Corruption has always been present in China’s political and economic system;
however, Sun remarks, its intensity and frequency have changed since the state’s economic
reforms were implemented in the late 1970s. Sun uses published casebooks of economic crime
to reveal a connection between decentralized power and the opportunities for corruption.
China’s economic reforms have facilitated the means for abuse and have decreased its
disincentives.
The Solidarity Center. 2004. “The Struggle for Worker Rights in China.” In Justice for All.
Washington: The Solidarity Center.
http://www.solidaritycenter.org/content.asp?contentid=501.
Annotation: The Solidarity Center’s report deals with workers’ rights in China in general, but
devotes several chapters to the issues of child labor and forced labor. Acknowledging the lack of
transparency in China that prevents us from knowing the full extent of forced labor and child
labor in the country, the author nonetheless testifies to the gravity of the problem with
references to news articles, reports, and personal testimonies. Solutions mentioned revolve
around education and rule of law. They include: the immediate banning of manual labor used by
schools to raise funds or supplement teachers’ pay, education of the most vulnerable groups
(migrants, women, children) to raise awareness of forced labor and trafficking, and enforcement
of laws already passed in China to ban forced labor.
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