Two Chinese labor officials were arrested Friday and a provincial governor apologized in the wake of a widening slave labor scandal that threatened the credibility of the ruling Communist Party. The scandal erupted after it was discovered hundreds of farmer, migrant workers and children were working without pay in brick kilns and other business in Shanxi Province. The scandal highlights the darker side of China's recent economic boom: the forced labor and exploitation of adults and children in the country's outer provinces often beyond the eye of the Western media.
See "China Tries to Contain Scandal Over Slave Labor With Arrests and Apology", David Lague, The New York Times, June 24, 2007