China Labour Bulletin appears in this article. Copyright remains with the original publisher
IT’S the cuddly mascot that will be bought by thousands as a souvenir of the Beijing Olympics.
The flame-red Huanhuan doll is one of five mascot dolls representing the Olympic rings and designed to spread messages of “prosperity and universal fraternity to the entire world”.
But with the Games officially opening on Friday, The Sun can reveal that workers who laboured to produce the doll at an Olympics-sanctioned Chinese factory experienced anything but the harmony the doll represents.
Clutching one of the Huanhuan dolls, mum-of-one Liu Yingcui said she earned the equivalent of just 30p an hour on the plant’s mind-numbing production lines.
Standing outside her ramshackle hut in the shadow of the factory, the 33-year-old said: “I scraped together enough money to feed and clothe myself and my daughter and that was it.
“The work was hard. It was more than nine hours a day with overtime and sometimes I worked seven days a week — but I had to support my daughter.
“The workers went on strike a couple of times to get more money.
"The bosses raised our rate a bit but not much. It was a real struggle to get by.”
The shack where The Sun spoke to Yingcui looks out of place for a nation hosting the Games.
Chickens scratch through rubbish outside, while the toilet is a hole in the ground that drains to a fetid lake.
Other factory workers said they were living in 12-bed dormitories inside the plant when they were making the mascots.
Like millions of migrant workers, Yingcui left her tiny plot of land in the Chinese interior where she farmed wheat to search for a better-paid job in one of the booming factories of China’s coastal cities.
She worked for two years at the huge You Li Toy Factory at Zhongshan, in the Pearl River Delta, southern China, helping to pack the mascots with stuffing.
She left her nine-year-old daughter, Qin Xuanli, with relatives back in her home town.
China has an estimated 58million “left-behind children” like Xuanli, looked after by friends or family while their parents migrate to find work.
Yingcui agreed to speak out because she is leaving the factory, which is now believed to be under new management.
The 30cm Huanhuan mascot costs around £7 in China. Yingcui would have to work for 24 hours to be able to afford one.
She added: “I’m not worried how much the mascot costs, I’m just worried about getting my daughter an education so she doesn't have to work in the factories.
“I want her to go to university so our family can have a better life.”
Yingcui — who was earning more than the minimum wage at the factory — said her working day began at 8am and usually finished at 8.30pm including overtime.
She was allowed breaks for lunch and dinner. She said her basic rate was 4.12 yuan an hour — around 30p — rising to about 43p for overtime and 58p on Sundays.
Her account was backed up by other factory workers, including a former quality checker at the plant who worked there for a decade, earning around £63 a month.
The 45-year-old woman, who also now lives in one of the fly-infested huts, said: “I’m very proud to have helped make the Olympic mascot.
“I often worked 11½ hours a day including overtime. It was tough.
“I lived in a dormitory with 12 other people. I had a locker but there was no privacy.”
Fellow workers Chen Xuzhen, 44, and Zhang Shini, 43, said their basic salary while making the dolls was 690 yuan a month — about £49 — for a six-day week.
That’s the exact minimum wage for the area. They also live in the dilapidated shacks near the plant.
When The Sun telephoned the factory, we were told by a woman who refused to give her name: “We have stopped making the mascots now and the boss responsible for the mascot-making has left.”
The woman refused to put us through to the manager and when we called again she slammed the phone down.
Olympics officials visited the factory before production started, saying it had “excellent equipment and excellent management”.
Last night Geoffrey Crothall, from the pressure group China Labour Bulletin, said: “The minimum wage isn’t a decent living wage for people who are also supporting children or relatives.
“That’s why so many workers do voluntary overtime that extends their working days.
“The trouble is, many Western companies have no idea where their product is made.
“Often companies have a shadow factory kept in pristine condition to show clients while the real factory with poor facilities is down the road.”
An International Olympic Committee spokesman told The Sun: “It matters a great deal to us that Olympic-related products are produced ethically.
“We are naturally very concerned to hear this may not have happened in this case.” The spokesman said that any Beijing-related Olympic products were the responsibility of the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games.
But the committee failed to respond to our phone calls or emails.
Last year pressure group PlayFair 2008 revealed that children as young as 12 worked at Chinese factories producing Olympic-licensed products such as bags, caps and stationery.
The report also revealed forced overtime and the violation of minimum-wage rules.
Workplace safety is poor — 14,382 people died in “industrial accidents” in China in 2006.
Meanwhile Yingcui shrugs and said: “I think the Olympics is a good thing for China but I don’t think I’ll be watching.
“I will probably be working — and I haven’t got a TV anyway.”