One More Reason Not to Buy "Made in China"

A short news item in my local paper sent me on a web search. The caption on the photo read "Child labour probe" and the photo showed a couple of young girls who had just been rescued from a factory in China. There's plenty of news articles covering this issue out there - do a search for "China Child Labour Probe" and you'll find them. Most of them quote allegations of over 1,000 children having been sold to factories over the past five years. The first article I read was this one, which is from China's official English language newspaper. One comment that gave me pause:

The Dongguan government had investigated more than 3,600 companies that employ 450,000 people between Monday and Wednesday, but found that only a few small companies and workshops had hired children, a local government official said.

Now, it doesn't say how many inspectors were sent out, but they investigated more than 3,600 companies in only 3 days? No wonder they didn't find much.

This is the article I thought offered the best range of coverage, with a good bit of background to balance out the latest news. It puts the number of children rescued in these raids at 167.