Authorities in southern China's Guangdong Province said they had made several arrests and had already rescued more than 100 children from factories in the city of Dongguan, one of the country's largest manufacturing centers for electronics and consumer goods sold around the world. The officials said they were investigating reports that hundreds of other rural children had been lured or forced into captive, almost slavelike conditions for minimal pay.

Experts say rising costs of labor, energy and raw material, and labor shortages in some parts of southern China have forced some factory owners to cut costs or find new sources of cheap labor, including child labor.

Even factories that supply global companies, including Wal-Mart Stores, have been accused in recent years of using child labor and violating local labor laws.

Experts say the labor problems discovered in Dongguan are not uncommon.

(Synopsis and Adopted from New York Times, www.nytimes.com, May 1, 2008)

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