The company mentioned below is Shenzhen Huagao Wongshi Technology Co., Ltd. Huagao Wongshi is a subsidiary of Wong’s International (Group) Co., Ltd., which is listed in Hong Kong. Wong’s International established Huagao Wangshi Technology Co., Ltd. in Baoan District, Shenzhen in 1986, along with its first factory. Right now, Huagao Wangshi has more than 2500 employees, toiling on the assembly lines of electronic products. Clients of the company’s electronic products include Dell computers. The other two factories of Wang’s International are respectively in Suzhou, China and Hải Dương, Vietnam.
Wang’s International’s annual report reads: “We prohibit the employment of child labour in pursuance of the International Labor Organization Conventions, national laws or any other applicable law or standard. We also prohibit all kinds of forced or compulsory labour under any conditions, including bonded, forced and/ or compulsory prison labour to work. We also follow the highest standard regarding the social insurance requirements for the employees’ contributions.”
My son Yu Ming, 17 years old, is currently studying at Danjiangkou Fourth Middle School (Danjiangkou Vocational and Technical School) in Shiyan City, Hubei Province. He is a second-year high school student, majoring in computer science., Arrived in Shenzhen in the early morning of June 11, 2021, and worked as an intern at Shenzhen Baoan Huagao Wangshi Technology Co., Ltd. At 10:28 on June 25, 2021, he fell to his death in the corridor of the dormitory building of Huagao Wangshi Technology Shenzhen Co., Ltd., Industrial Park, No. 98 Shajing, Baoan District, Shenzhen…
At 11:40 am on June 25th, I received a notice from the director of the emergency department of the hospital, telling my son that he had fallen from the sixth floor and had no signs of life when he arrived. The rescue was to no avail and he was about to declare his death. At noon that day, I received a call from Police Officer Li from Wanfeng Police Station in Bao’an District, informing me that my son had been declared dead, and told me to bring my ID card and household registration to Shenzhen. He asked me if there were any abnormalities during the phone call with my son in the morning. I rushed to Shenzhen at 10 o’clock that evening. My child was already in the funeral home, and I didn’t see my son that night.
On the morning of June 26, I finished the nucleic acid test and then gave my statement at the police station. After the certificate was issued, it was already after three in the afternoon. After the nucleic acid test report, it was too late to go to the funeral home. Until 8 am on June 27th, the mother and I went to the funeral home to see our son. He was confirmed to be dead.
Since the child’s accident, the factory has been operating normally. The factory does not allow the spread of the incident. Most employees do not know that my son is dead. After the incident, the police asked the security and employees on the spot to delete the photos and videos of the incident taken on their mobile phones. The teacher in the factory got hold of several emotional students and forced them to return home. Currently, they are waiting for nucleic acid results. In the past few days since I came to Shenzhen from Hubei, the factory did not arrange for anyone to communicate with me about my son’s situation in the factory. As if the incident had never happened before.
As a father, I blame myself and feel guilty for not protecting my son. Raised up to 17 years old, and then he was gone. The report given by the police station is to rule out homicide! I have objections. I have no quarrels, no disturbances, which does not mean no anger! As a parent, I think back to the little things I spent with my son, sometimes crying, making trouble, beating, and scolding. Now he had grown up, but on the 15th day of the internship in Shenzhen, he fell down…
What has my son experienced in the past ten days? Thinking back to the phone call between my son and I on the day of the accident, I said that the head teacher reminded me that you would be expelled from school if you missed work again. He said that he was too tired to go to work. He worked for more than ten hours every day and night. He was very tired. He fell asleep at noon and couldn’t eat lunch. He had a stomachache when he entered the factory. The line manager Hu Guijun deliberately targeted him. My son applied to be switched to day shifts but Hu said that he had no authority. He really couldn’t bear it. He wanted to quit. I said no. If you want to be a soldier, you must have a high school diploma. First, get new glasses and persevere. I never anticipated that I did not stand with him when he needed me the most. If I had known this, we wouldn’t need a high school diploma, as long as my son is safe and healthy.
During these days in Shenzhen, I felt deeply helpless. My son’s classmates and class president came to visit me to express condolences. They were very emotional, saying that I must find the factory and line managers to make trouble, and they must be brought to justice. It was them who forced my son to death. They have evidence of illegal employment and forced labor. I had a splitting headache and hesitated, but in the end I stopped it, because I knew that the overall situation must be considered. I knew that in the face of the company’s strong legal affairs, our power was very small, but I believe that justice will only be late and will not be absent. I ask the local officials to pay attention and help me get justice.
- Illegal employment:
Shenzhen Baoan Huagao Wangshi Technology Co., Ltd., as an employer, promises high returns to the school, in the name of providing computer professional internship opportunities (the hourly wage is 26 yuan, 12 yuan to the school, 14 yuan to the students). Knowing that the outbreak was raging in Guangdong (June 10, 2021), the school tricked more than 100 minors (the second grade students in two classes of Danjiangkou No. 4 Middle School in Shiyan City, Hubei Province, most of whom were 17 years old, and the youngest were just 16 years old before coming to the factory) into the factory. There was actually no practical course in computer science. On the first day, everyone was put on work clothes to assemble electronic equipment, and was told to move boxes after the next day. In the words of the students, what I learned at school was keyboarding. I was tricked into doing an internship and instead moved bricks. One box of more than 20 kilograms is equivalent to five bricks, which was carried relentlessly for more than ten hours a day. No leave or absence from work is allowed, not a single day. Even during night shifts, you can’t doze off. Supervisors will be monitoring performance and a list of students will be reported to the school. The school will openly criticize and educate these students. Those who do not change behavior will be expelled from school! ! ! When I knew all this, my heart was broken. Even capitalism of the old society would not be like this, right? Looking at the whole country, Shenzhen, the city of China’s science and technology, allows such practice, I can’t even think about it!
Teenage children, while growing up, were either holding a pen or typing on the keyboard and now suddenly do such a heavy labor. All ten fingers are worn out. Excessive physical labor and a high-pressure environment are not for children under 18 years old. Isn’t it illegal employment?
Picture (Shenzhen Baoan Huagao Wangshi Technology Co., Ltd. statistics of high school students at work)
I conjure up an image of my son suddenly falling asleep after the night shift, and a voice shouted:
Child, you dozed off during the twelve-hour night shift last night, you will be fired next time.
My child, you are too slow to do things. You have changed a few positions, and next time you are expelled.
My child, the leave slip was left on the table. I didn’t see it when I slept during the night shift. So you are absent from work.
Let’s write a self-criticism report, kid, hurry up and change clothes. I have to move the box for more than ten hours tonight.
Picture
My child, the box is not heavy, only 5 bricks at a time.
Child, it’s okay, although you are learning computer, you can think of it as a computer when you move the box.
Sorry, kid, your father has carried bricks all his life. You should learn how to carry boxes at school.
Child, persist for three months, the head teacher said, persistence will give you a chance to graduate, if you do not persist today, you will not graduate.
- Forced labor
- Mandatory work for more than ten hours a day without leave
- Compulsory night shift. Applied for shift change several times, but the management refused
- Forced labor. If you don’t work hard for three months at Shenzhen Baoan Huagao Wangshi Technology Co., Ltd., you will be expelled from high school and you will never graduate.
- You must go to work if you are sick. Asking for leave is considered absenteeism. On the way to the night shift, my son’s head was hit. The glasses were broken, and his head kept bleeding. The factory manager did not allow you to take time off, when you had stomachache (after long-hour night shift, he slept through lunch and didn’t eat; several times in the morning the canteen was being cleaned after work, so couldn’t get food, causing frequent stomach pain)
- Myopia is 600 degrees, and the frame of the glasses is broken while moving things. The line manager wrapped his glasses with tape, and the tape was wrapped around the head a few times (very insulting, there are videos from the floor showing this), and he was asked to continue to work.