Observation of the whistler-blower

Qin Peng, one of the reporters from Xinjiang Metropolis News who first reported the illegal employment, said he saw workers in the plant were wearing shabby clothes.

"Their clothes and faces were covered with powder and dust," he said

while being interviewed by Xinhua.

Also, the workers walked very slowly, Qin said.

When reporters came to the plant on Dec. 13, they found these workers and Li Xinglin had fled.

"Hammers were laying on the ground, and some newly produced talcum powder was still being placed beside the machine, which made it appear they left in a rush," said Qin.

Zhang Chunxian, secretary of the Party committee of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, vowed to trace to the end those involved in the scandal.

"No matter how difficult the case is, we will do our best to seize the suspects and severely punish them according to the law. We will deal with the case in a transparent way," he said.

On Dec. 10, reporters from Xinjiang Metropolis News were tipped off that the factory, Jiaersi Green Construction Material Chemical Factory in Toksun County of Xinjiang, was using mentally ill workers, and went to the factory, saying they would interview the owner about pollution, as an excuse to view the conditions there.

Some neighbors of the factory said that other similar plants in the area were closed during the winter season every year, and workers could receive at least 150 yuan each working day. But workers at Jiaersi factory worked all year without pay, according to the reporters.

The floor of the workshop was covered with thick dust, but workers had

no masks, the reporters wrote, noting that they appeared to be intellectually challenged.

Loophole in the system?

The photos posted on the Internet of those allegedly mentally disabled

workers sparked outrage among netizens, especially when the scandal blew up during the Asian Para Games in Guangdong.

In the photos, workers' clothes, hair, mustaches, eyebrows and even eyelashes were covered with white dust. They were carrying stones or bags of talcum powder and quartz sand amid floating dust.

Many questioned how it was possible that the illegal training base in Sichuan has been run for more than ten years, and no officials ever noticed Zeng's illegal act.

"It is a shame about our supervision system," said an editorial in the Qianjiang Evening News.

"When the residents couldn't bear to see the scene of miserable workers being enslaved, how could local government turn a blind eye to it?" it said.

"The asylum in Sichuan had been investigated in 2006, but it is still exporting' workers years after the investigation. How strange it is!" noted the editorial.

A police officer from Toksun County, who declined to be named, said police had heard about the factory and visited it, but the boss said he had work contracts with civil authorities from Sichuan, so they gave up any further investigation.

However, Wang Yong, director of the Civil Affairs Bureau of Quxian County, said he was not familiar with Zeng's shelter.

"I came here to work last year," he said. "I just heard about the self-reliance group adopting some disabled and mentally ill people during the spring festival this year."

Wang Gongyi, vice director of the justice research institute in China's Ministry of Justice, said that disregarding the legitimacy of the asylum, even if Li Xinglin had a contract with the asylum, such employment was still illegal.