Other people perspective about Child labor in China

In this blog, I will be talking about my interview with a Wheaton college student about the things I learned about China, which is why children is working at a young age, the government role in child labor, and questions of that matter. The individual that I interviewed claims that he/she has no real general knowledge about China’s child labor. My purpose of this interview is to find out what the person understanding of China’s child labor and then later try to distinguish fact from misunderstandings or ignorance. The person that I interviewed wish to remain anonymous.

Me: Do you know what’s been going on in China, regarding the issue of children? Interviewee: Yeah, don’t they have to do force labor with no pay?

Me: Yeah, that’s true some kids are capture and forced into working. Who do you feel is responsible for forced child labor?

Interviewee: The government, they may not directly, but it relates to the government at some point. It’s the government fault.

Me: How do you know that it is the government fault?

Interviewee: I don’t know, but in most cultures for things like that the government is usually held responsible.

Me: Do you think the government is doing the best that they can?

Interviewee: No, because if they were they would be spending all the money they had to fix the problem.

Me. Do you think they have child labor laws in China?

Interviewee: If they do have laws it’s not enforced, so, no they do not have child labors laws.

Me: What suggestions do you have for China?

Interviewee: There should be more groups helping the matter and spreading the word.

In this interview, the interviewee was aware of some of the issues in China. There was one case where he/she made a true remark about some children in China are forced to work. There were other cases where the interviewee just assumed a lot of information. When the question was raised about the Chinese government involvement, he/she stated that the government is responsible and should have made more attempts to do something because they are doing nothing. This is not necessarily the case. One can feel a certain way about governmental issues, but one cannot assume what the government is doing based off his or her feelings. In order to know this information, one has to do research about the topic. The Chinese government currently has child labors laws, but is having a difficult time enforcing it. Also, I asked where he/she received the information and he/she passed it off as common knowledge. The question giving is not common knowledge because most people do not know this information. Overall, I think this interview was helpful because I am starting to understand assumptions, rather than facts, are the methods used when discussing China’s child labor issue.