Slavery in China

Slavery in China has taken various forms throughout history. Slavery was nominally abolished in 1910, although the practice continued until at least 1949. The Chinese term for slave (simplified Chinese: 奴隶; traditional Chinese: 奴隸; pinyin: núlì) can also be roughly translated into 'debtor', 'dependent', or 'subject'. Despite a few attempts to ban it, slavery existed continuously throughout pre-modern China, sometimes serving a key role in politics, economics, and historical events. However slaves in China were a very small part of the population due to a large peasant population that mitigated the need for large scale slave labor. The slave population included war prisoners and kidnapped victims or people who had been sold.^{: 145–147}