China has arrested two officials of a labour bureau for their links to the use of slave labourers, including children, forced to work in grim conditions and often beaten in brick kilns in the poor northwest.

Hou Junyuan and Shang Guanze, inspectors for the labour and social security bureau in Shanxi province, were the first officials to be taken into custody in connection with the scandal over the enslaving of hundreds, if not thousands, of ill-educated farmers and boys at brick factories that burst into the public eye two weeks ago.

The two men were responsible for abducting an underaged worker who had just been released from a kiln and was on his way home. They sent the boy to another kiln where he was again forced into slavery.

The arrests are the clearest sign yet that the authorities have responded to unusually strongly worded editorials in some newspapers accusing regional officials of collusion or of turning a blind eye to such abuses that have been practised in their districts for many years. Police in Shanxi have said they are investigating 55 people in connection with 15 cases of slavery at brick kilns and of those 35 are in detention and the rest are on the run.

Expert View

It’s a well-known pattern in China: reveal a little of the realities of life to show that the government knows, and more important that it cares and is taking action.

Jane Macartney

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• Slavery in China

Since the scandal first broke last month, after a group of 400 parents posted a letter on the internet pleading with the authorites to help and a television journalist began an investigative report, several hundred workers have been freed and dozens of children have been found.

However, there are fears that amid the initial blaze of publicity, some of the kiln owners have moved their workers to other locations to hide them from police raids.

Children as young as eight have been among the workers forced to haul bricks for up to 20 hours a day without pay, living on little more than steamed bread and water and living in squalid conditions in huts that were locked at night and guarded by dogs and thugs. Many of those rescued showed gruesome injuries from burns and beatings.

The revelations, which have shocked urban China, prompted Premier Wen Jiabao at a cabinet meeting this week to order a full investigation and punishment for kiln owners who abetted their abuses. Shanxi Governor Yu Youjun issued a rare public self-criticism this week, becoming the first high-ranking official to perform a potentially career-damaging act of contrition in the case.

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