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DONGGUAN, China-Police in southern China have taken into custody scores of youngsters suspected of being underage workers after a muckraking newspaper exposed a child labor racket this week.The government is investigating thousands of factories in one of China's main export hubs, sometimes called the "factory of the world".The scandal, first reported by the newspaper Southern Metropolis, is an example of the desperate measures employers are taking in the face of rising costs and a chronic labor shortage, experts in Chinese manufacturing say.It also underscores challenges employers face verifying workers' ages and ones authorities face in enforcing labor laws, say factory managers and agents who export Chinese goods.The child labor scandal comes at a sensitive time for China as it readies for the Beijing Olympics in August.A spokesman for the township of Shipai, an hour and a half north of Hong Kong, said police were looking after at least 79 children believed to be from the remote, impoverished area of Liangshan in Sichuan province.None had identification to prove their age, he said.Southern Metropolis said hundreds of children from Liangshan, mostly 13-15 years old, had been sold or kidnapped to work in factories in the south, particularly in Dongguan, a major export centre where Shipai is located.To read more go to:
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