"As a prisoner at the Jixi labour camp, Liu Dali would slog through tough days breaking rocks and digging trenches in the open cast coalmines of north-east China. By night, he would slay demons, battle goblins and cast spells.

Liu says he was one of scores of prisoners forced to play online games to build up credits that prison guards would then trade for real money. The 54-year-old, a former prison guard who was jailed for three years in 2004 for "illegally petitioning" the central government about corruption in his hometown, reckons the operation was even more lucrative than the physical labour that prisoners were also forced to do.

"Prison bosses made more money forcing inmates to play games than they do forcing people to do manual labour," Liu told the Guardian. "There were 300 prisoners forced to play games. We worked 12-hour shifts in the camp. I heard them say they could earn 5,000-6,000rmb [£470-570] a day. We didn't see any of the money. The computers were never turned off."

Memories from his detention at Jixi re-education-through-labour camp in Heilongjiang province from 2004 still haunt Liu. As well as backbreaking mining toil, he carved chopsticks and toothpicks out of planks of wood until his hands were raw and assembled car seat covers that the prison exported to South Korea and Japan. He was also made to memorise communist literature to pay off his debt to society.

But it was the forced online gaming that was the most surreal part of his imprisonment. The hard slog may have been virtual, but the punishment for falling behind was real.

"If I couldn't complete my work quota, they would punish me physically. They would make me stand with my hands raised in the air and after I returned to my dormitory they would beat me with plastic pipes. We kept playing until we could barely see things," he said."

More... http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/25/china-prisoners-internet-gaming-scam

 

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And yet people keep buying items made in China.

iPod anyone?

My how standards and ideals fly out the window when people can save a buck.

Everything is made in China so unless you want to live in a cave out in the woods, living off the land, then you have to buy some stuff from China. Unfortunately.

 

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So, if a crooked prison warden in the U.S. somewhere did something bad to some prisoners, would the headline read, " U.S. does yada yada to prisoners!!"...


No. A few people abusing their position did these things.. not "China"....


Generalizing is ignorant.

Stop.

 

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I really hope you aren't insinuating you don't use anything made in China.....

There are still chain gangs in the US doing road work. While being beaten with a pipe is bad I am not sure that forcing inmates to do some work is all that wrong. It is kind of funny that the Chinese gold farmers we all like to bad mouth are prisoners.

Actually, I go out of my way to research an item before I purchase it. I am quite willing to spend extra money to buy it (invariably from another Asian country).

However, in many instances you just can't tell until you open the box and see a sticker on the item or virtually every brand comes from China. LG and Asus make most of the electronics in my house.
However, try and buy a Microwave Oven that is NOT from China.

Buying WoW gold is several levels of bad. From risking your account (against the TOS, opening it to a hacker) to supporting the aforementioned actions of prison officials to actively supporting the gold farming portion of game exploitation.
It is your personal choice whether to support (or not) these activities and by both individuals and corrupt governments.

I have thought about it and made a decision that has (and will continue) to cost me money but I am comfortable with that decision.
That being said I have thought about professional sports. If they were completely dependent on my spending money on them to stay afloat there would not be a single pro team in existence. I am sure many people feel otherwise as there sure seems to be an abundance of them. But that is their choice, not mine.

Because they do not subcontract to China?

Abuse and exploitation of prisoners are hardly specific to China alone. It shouldn't have to be pointed out that a requirement to work and abuse of that requirement are two very different things, but the point already seems to have been muddled in this thread.

And there are plenty of gold-farming companies in the U.S.

I'd hope most of us reading these boards are willing to take a stand against both problems, but going on a "buy USA" tirade doesn't exactly address the issues here.

Wowplayer..I know its off of the subject..but why do you dislike proffesional sports so much? Is it the money they rake in? Which I have heard from a lot of people.