Investigative Report on Slave Labor in Chinese Labor Camps Holding Falun Gong Practitioners (Part I)
Summary
The World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG), established on Jan. 23, 2003, has been investigating the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China. This report focuses on the evidence of forced labor products made by ilegally detained Falun Gong practitioners in China's labor camps. The evidence includes a case in the Lanzhou No. 1 Detention Center in which a 57 year old Falun Gong practitioner, Wan Guifu, was forced to crack the shells of large watermelon seeds with his teeth and peel the husk off with his fingers to produce one of the products distributed by Lanzhou Zhenglin Nongken Food Ltd. Because Wan could not fulfill the highly labor-intensive task, the captain of the 4th Crew, Lu Jun, encouraged the prisoners in Cell No.9 to torture Wan, which resulted in his death.
The forced labor system not only violates the basic human rights of the detainees, but also encourages the prison and labor camp systems to persecute the detainees because of the huge profit in products made by forced labor. In addition, it shakes the stability of international labor and trade market when these cheap products are dumped on the international market. Many consumers buy the products, misled by the cheap price, as they are totally unaware of the truth. Yet the Chinese government has a preferential policy in place for corporations in the forced labor camps and prison systems to encourage and attract foreign investment. The [2001] No.56 document from the State Administration of Taxation under China's Ministry of Finance clearly indicates that if the property and product rights of a company are solely owned by a prison or forced labor camp system, the company is exempt from corporate income tax and the land inquisition levy. Advertisements from economic developing areas in some provinces and cities in China promote cheap labor in areas where there are prisons and labor camps as a way to attract foreign investment.
Evidence shows that companies like Beijing Mickey Toys Co. Ltd, Lanzhou Zhenglin Nongken Food Ltd., Jinan Tianyi Printing Co. Ltd., and Qiqiha'er Siyou Chemical Industry Co. Ltd., worked together with labor camps and detention centers in Beijing, Lanzhou, Jinan and Qiqiha'er, and forced detained Falun Gong practitioners to make products without any payment during their detention period. Australian and Swiss journalists exposed the case of Beijing Mickey Toys Co. Ltd. approaching Beijing Xin'an Labor Camp to force detained Falun Gong practitioners to produce toy rabbits for Nestl?
Lanzhou Zhenglin Nongken Food Ltd., in cooperation with Lanzhou Dashaping Detention Center and Lanzhou No.1 Detention Center, forced almost 10,000 detainees (including Falun Gong practitioners unlawfully detained after July 1999) to produce "Handpicked Melon Seeds". The process includes cracking the shells of the seeds from a particular kind of large melon seeds with their teeth, and peeling the husk off by hand to get the kernels. This process damaged many people's teeth and hands, in some cases the entire fingernail was peeled off. The detainees were forced to work more then ten hours a day, but received no payment for their work. In the past few years, Lanzhou Zhenglin Nongken Food Ltd. has become the largest producer of roasted seeds and nuts in China, with its sales reaching 460 million yuan. Their main product, Zhenglin Hand-picked Melon Seeds, are exported to places such as the United States, Canada, Australia, Southeast Asia, Taiwan, etc. The No. 1 Female Labor Camp in Shandong became the base for Jinan Tianyi Printing Co. Ltd., Detainees in the labor camp stick labels for products like "Beijing Jiangyaling" and "Shuanghe" (two of the trade names).
Due to the tight blockade on such information in China and the deliberate obstruction of this type of investigation, the death and injury cases of Falun Gong practitioners caused by forced labor during their detention period reported in this documents are simply a tip of the iceberg. Currently, WOIPFG is investigating and verifying more cases.
Introduction
China's forced labor camp system was established in 1957. According to the document "Proposed Methods on Re-education-through-Labor", published by the Ministry of Public Security in 1982, education through labor is used to handle "contradictions among the people", and it is an "administrative measure to carry out enforced education and reform" [1]. There is no need to go through any due process to carry out re-education-through--labor, and detainees are subjected to this punishment. The re-education-through-labor system has become a very effective tool in the past fifty years for the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) totalitarian regime to violate its own constitutions and place itself above all laws in oppressing Chinese people and dissidents. Presently, "China has a vast forced labor camp system and perhaps the most secretive and widely feared penal system in the world."[2]
There are two direct purposes behind China's system of "re-education-through-labor", firstly to create a reliable and cheap labor force through forced labor, and secondly to brainwash prisoners. This is the so-called "reform one's mind through labor". This not only violates the basic human rights of the detainees, but also encourages the prison and labor camp systems to persecute the detainees because of the huge profit in products made through forced labor. In addition, it shakes the stability of international labor and trade markets when these cheap products are dumped on the international market. Many consumers buy the products, totally unaware of the reasons behind the cheap price.
What is indisputable is the illegality of China's forced labor camp system. It violates numerous conventions and international laws of which China is a signatory, including the United Nations Charter, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and other conventions against torture and cruel and inhumane penalties. At the same time, the forced labor camp system also violates China's own constitution. One of China's own legal scholars considers that, "The forced labor education policy has four problems. The first is the legality of the system itself. Forced labor camp system, like the detention and repatriation system, has not been authorized by the law. It has been clearly stated in the "On Legislation" that: Penalties and forcible measures that restrict personal freedom can only be prescribed through legislation by the National People's Congress and its Standing Committee. However, what currently supports the forced labor system is only the "Proposed Methods on Re-education-through-labor" published by the Ministry of Public Security. The National People's Congress has never prescribed law in this aspect...." [3]
In addition, China is a member of the International Labor Organization (ILO). The torture, unlawful detention, detention and forced labor for political and religious reasons, etc. in the forced labor camps all violate ILO's regulation about "Work condition and worker's rights". [4]
Because of the strong resistance from western democratic countries against "forced labor products", in 1991 China's State Council re-emphasized the ban on the export of "forced labor products" and stipulated that no prison is allowed to cooperate or establish joint ventures with foreign investment. [5] In reality, however, the Chinese government has granted numerous preferential policies to enterprises under labor camps and prisons, to encourage and attract foreign investment and export. In the document [2001] No.56 from the State Bureau of Taxation under China's Ministry of Finance, it is clearly stated that if the property rights of a company are solely owned by a prison or forced labor camp system, the company is exempt from corporate income tax and the land inquisition levy. [6] In advertisement from economic development zones in some provinces and cities, they even use the cheap (or free) labor as an advantage to attract foreign investment. In the advertisement from Southern Hunan Prison of Hunan Province, it is specifically pointed out that "Xinsheng Coal Mine of Hunan Province, also known as Southern Hunan Prison of Hunan Province, located in Huangshi, Laiyang of Hunan Province. ... offers cheap, abundant labor forces, ...(cheaper labors are available if prison inmates are used), relatively low operating costs. ... Our business is a special enterprise, enjoys an amicable relationship with the local government and relevant offices, and is a recipient of various preferential policies granted by the government. We provide a flexible, harmonious investment environment. ... Xinsheng Coal Mine warmly welcomes both domestic and overseas investment." It has also been reported that the Shiliping Labor Camp, where Falun Gong practitioners were detained, was mentioned in the advertisement for Huzheng industry zone, where the labor camp is located: The industry zone is situated south of the railway station in Huzheng. With convenient transport, and Shiliping Labor Camp and Prison nearby, the industry zone is an industry development area in the overall development plan of Huzheng.
Since China's former president Jiang Zemin launched the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, according to incomplete statistics, more than 180 forced labor camps in China have directly participated in the persecution through illegal forced labor of over 100,000 Falun Gong practitioners. Up to October 8, 2003, 219 of the 793 death cases of Falun Gong practitioners resulted from torture in labor camps, accounting for 28% of the total death toll. Sixty-nine labor camps directly caused the deaths of Falun Gong practitioners, including elderly people in their 60s and an 8 month-old infant. Even disabled practitioners were not spared. [8]
Reports received by WOIPFG show that in addition to forced brainwashing and torture, China's labor camps also force a large number of Falun Gong practitioners to work as slave labors. Because of the terrible working conditions and highly labor-intensive work, Falun Gong practitioners have all suffered various degrees of damage, both mentally and physically. Some have become disabled or even died.
Evidence shows that Lanzhou Zhenglin Nongken Food Ltd., Jinan Tianyi Printing Co. Ltd., and Qiqiha'er Siyou Chemical Industry Co. Ltd. directly cooperated with labor camps and detention centers to force Falun Gong practitioners to manufacture forced labor products without any payment during their detention. Practitioners are forced to work more than 10 hours a day, sometimes even continuously overnight. Those that cannot fulfill their tasks are beaten, some even tortured to death. Products of these companies are available in major cities in China, while products of Lanzhou Zhenglin Nongken Food Ltd. are exported to more than 30 countries and regions, including the United States, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, etc.
This initial report by WOIPFG only begins to expose the illegal prison labors in the labor camps and how they are used in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. Due to the tight blockade on such information in China and the deliberate obstruction of this type of investigation, the death and injury cases of Falun Gong practitioners caused by forced labor during their detention period reported in this document are only a tip of the iceberg. Currently, WOIPFG is investigating and verifying more cases.
Beijing Mickey Toys Co., Ltd., Nestle, and Beijing Xin'an Female Labor Camp
Beijing Mickey Toys Co. Ltd. was established in 1987. It is a joint venture specializing in design, manufacture, sales and export of soft toys. With annual production over 200,000 dozens (200,000 x 12 items), its products are exported to many countries, including the United States. Canada, Australia, Denmark, Brazil, Hungary, Japan, etc. It also has a certain market share in Southeast Asia. [9]
Picture 1: Photo of Beijing Mickey Toys Co., Ltd sign board on its front gate.
Beijing Xin'an Female Labor Camp, (formerly a unit of Tiantanghe Labor Camp of Beijing, later upgraded to an independent labor camp), is located in Nanyuan, Daxing Country, Beijing. This labor camp was originally a male labor camp. Because there were too many detained female Falun Gong practitioners, the original female labor camp became overcrowded, thus they swapped the female and male labor camps. Before the persecution of Falun Gong, there were around 100-200 people in the female labor camp. After the persecution, the size of this labor camp expanded rapidly from holding over 100 detainees in July 2000 to nearly 1000 in April 2001. Many Falun Gong practitioners became disabled or even died as a result of torture during their detention in this labor camp. Xin'an Labor Camp does handwork for several companies for their export products. Beijing Mickey Toys Co., Ltd is one such company. In February 2001, nearly 1000 illegally detained Falun Gong practitioners were forced to make toys with no pay. This forced labor produced 100,000 toy rabbits for Beijing Mickey Toys Co., Ltd subcontracted by Nestl.
Jennifer Zeng is a Falun Gong practitioner currently living in Australia. She was detained in Xin'an Labor Camp and was one of the practitioners forced to make Nestl?toy rabbits. She described her experience as follows. "In the labor camp, we were forced to do all kinds of heavy labor work, including planting grass and trees, clearing garbage, digging cellars for storing vegetables in winter, knitting sweaters, knitting cushions, making toys, producing disposable syringes, wrapping sanitized chopsticks and so on. Most of the products were for export. In particular, the sweaters we knitted were large sizes only suitable for foreigners who are big in build. In February 2001, we received an order for 100,000 toy rabbits. According to the police, the toys were being made for Nestl?to be used in their promotions. The rabbits were about 30 cm. long, brown in color, with a long neck, wearing a large bright red collar made from fleecy material, with two black whiskers on each side of the face, about 5-6 cm long. Some of the rabbits wore cowboy vests, some wore dustcoats, and some had one eye patched up like a pirate. There were English letters on their chests, with their fists clenched, thumbs up. There were three toes on their feet, canary yellow in color. Their tails were white in color and very short."
The picture below is a photo of the toy rabbits manufactured for Nestle taken from Mickey Toys Co. Ltd. It's clear that they are the same as Jennifer described.
Picture 2: Toy rabbits produced by Mickey Co., LTD for Nestle Photograph taken after Jennifer made her statement.
"Usually the toy rabbits for processing were delivered to the labor camp by a middle aged woman riding a tricycle. It would go through over 30 processing lines to make a rabbit like this, and it would take over 10 hours to make one. But the processing fee for each rabbit was only 30 cents (equivalent to Au$0.06, US$0.04). The processing fees were paid to the labor camp. We didn't get anything. Usually we began work after getting up at 5 o'clock in the morning, and worked until 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning the next day. Sometimes we had to work overtime, otherwise we could not finish the job. At the busiest time, I did not dare to wash my hands after going to the toilet, in order to save a few minutes. At night, sometimes I was so exhausted that I could not even count clearly from 1 to 9. Yet I still had to force my eyes open to knit sweaters. The pattern of the sweater was quite complicated; sometimes we finally finished the knitting after much effort only to discover the next morning it had been knitted completely wrongly. So, we had to unpick the stitches and redo it. Long hours of highly intensive workload and severe lack of sleep made me feel, for a very long period of time, that the only thing I needed in my life was sleep." [10]
The Sydney Morning Herald and Geneva Le Temps, both reported on this case. On December 28, 2001, the Sydney Morning Herald published an article by Kelly Burke: "Cute toy rabbits belie ordeal of Chinese labor camps". Nestl?released a statement to the Herald, confirming that the company placed an order with an established Beijing-based toy manufacturer, Beijing Mickey Toys Co. Ltd. for 110,000 plush rabbits for a Nesquik promotion early that year. [11]
Frederic Koller, a journalist from Geneva Le Temps stationed in Beijing, went to Daxing in Beijing to search for evidence, but Mickey Toys Co. Ltd. refused to grant an interview or to provide their company's address. According to his own investigation with survivors from the labor camp and residents living in the industrial area of Daxing city, Frederic Koller wrote a report that was published in the Saturday economy section of Geneva Le Temps on April 13, 2002. The article pointed out, as Nestle admitted, that the Mickey Toys's factory is located in Daxing, Beijing (the same as Tiantanghe Labor Camp). [12] One year later, after Mickey Toys orders were reduced by 60%, Mickey Toys voluntarily invited Frederic Koller to their factory for an interview, hoping the journalist would write an article to restore their reputation. After the interview and investigation, the journalist did not write anything to "restore" their reputation.
Lanzhou Zhenglin Nongken Food Ltd.
Lanzhou Zhenglin Nongken Food Ltd, established in 1988 in Gansu by Taiwanese businessman Lin Ken, is one of the earliest Taiwan-financed enterprises in Gansu. From 1992, the company embarked on a joint venture with Lanzhou Dashaping Detention Center and Lanzhou No.1 Detention Centre (also known as Xiguoyuan Detention Centre). Some 10,000 detainees (including dozens of illegally detained Falun Gong practitioners) were forced to use their hands to peel the shells off melon seeds, and were engaged in intensive physical labor work. Those detainees were forced to crack the seeds of a large variety of melon between their teeth, and then peel the husk off with their bare hands to remove the kernels. In winter, they had to do this work outside in the freezing cold. Many of them suffered frostbite and the skin on their hands split, with pus and blood from the wounds oozing onto the melon seeds. In the summer, the cracking and extracting of kernels from shells continued unabated. Many had their teeth cracked and damaged from cracking melon seeds, and even lost their fingernails in the process of extracting the kernels from their shells. The detainees were forced to squat on their heels to do the work from early morning till evening for more than ten hours continuously, with no pay.
Photos show a packet of Zhenglin Hand-picked Melon Seeds, sold in a Chinese grocery store in Sydney, Australia. The front side of the packet shows the price of Aus$4.80. The reverse side shows details of the Australian importer.
In order for Zhenglin Nongken Food Ltd and Xiguoyuan Detention Centre to make a huge profit, the detainees were given high quotas for their work. The detention center staff tortured the detainees at will. Furthermore, there was corruption and economic crimes. In 1998, a division chief of Dashaping Detention Center committed suicide with a gun when he was found embezzling money of melon seed process fees.
In April 2001, 57 year-old Falun Gong practitioner Wan Guifu was illegally sent to Lanzhou No. 1 Detention Center. Wan Guifu was forced to crack melon seeds with his teeth and extract the kernels with his fingers. His lips were badly swollen and the fingernails of both his hands fell off. His fingers were bleeding and oozing pus. Because he was unable to finish his quota, Wan Guifu was tortured by inmates of Cell No. 9, after secret instructions from the captain of the 4th crew of Lanzhou No. 1 Detention Center. Wan suffered severe injury to his abdomen. On December 29, 2001, he was sent to the Lanzhou Dashaping Labor Camp Hospital but died three days later. The doctors extracted a lot of fluid from Wan Guifu's abdominal cavity, a direct result of the severe torture. [13] According to confirmation by people (names omitted) who were detained at Lanzhou Dashaping Detention Center for a long period, the death rate of detainees at the center was very high, but because of the blockade of information, details of the death cases are usually not reported.
These unpaid manual labor provided huge profits for Zhenglin Nongken Food Ltd. In 1999, the annual sales reached 460 million yuan. [14] In just a few years, Zhenglin Nongken Food Ltd became the biggest production base in China in roasted seeds and nuts. Its main product line, "Zhenglin handpicked melon seeds" (shelled by detainees), is sold in more than 30 countries including the United States, Canada, Australia, France, New Zealand, and Southeast Asian countries. At present, Zhenglin Nongken Food Ltd has subsidiary companies overseas in the United States, Canada, Singapore, and Malaysia. In Australia, they have an import business liaison person. [15]
Shandong No. 1 Female Labor Camp collaborated with Jinan Tianyi Printing Co., Ltd. to use forced labor by Falun Gong practitioners
Shandong No.1 Female Labor Camp, located at 20 Jiangshuiquan Road, Jinan City, is commonly known as Jinan Female Labor Camp. The current head of the camp is Jiang Lihang. Originally there were only about 200 detainees. Since October 2000, however, the number of detainees increased sharply to more than 700 people. More than 95% of them were Falun Dafa practitioners who had been illegally kidnapped and detained there. In order to increase profit from foreign investment so that the labor camp staff could get more bonuses, the labor camp signed business deals with Jinan Tianyi Printing Co., Ltd. and several other companies, and turned the labor camp into handwork workshops for these enterprises. The labor camp forced the detainees to do excessive amounts of labor work. As a result, detainees (including elderly ladies over 60 years old) had to work 13 to 14 hours a day and sometimes even overnight without pay. Due to working overtime for long periods of time, a lot of detainees had difficulty standing, and it was very common for someone to faint in the workshop. Those who refused to work would be put into a "confined solitary compartment" which was totally dark. The practitioners confined there were not allowed to go to sleep, to wash their faces or brush their teeth. They were also not allowed to come out of the compartment to go to toilet and were forced to stand continuously for more than 20 days until they became unconscious. These people would then have such swollen feet so that they could not wear shoes and could not walk.
In the first half of 2002 alone, the labor camp had a profit of 570 thousand yuan [Chinese currency, the monthly salary for an average Chinese urban worker is about 500 yuan (renminbi)] from the processing work. In two years, the labor camp built a multi-storied office building, a reception building and a huge boiler building.
Jinan Tianyi Printing Co., Ltd. is a joint venture printing company between Shandong International Trust and Investment Corporation and investment from Hong Kong. The company is located at 16 Honglou South Road, Licheng District, Jinan of Shandong Province. Its current General Manager is Xu Bo. The company mainly prints packaging boxes for medical goods and food. It also prints some other paper packaging materials, deluxe picture albums and posters. Jinan Tianyi Printing Co., Ltd. has several business partners, the main ones including Shijiazhuang Pharmaceutical Group and Beijing Double-Crane Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. In 2002, the annual turnover reached 80 million yuan (renminbi), with a net profit of 6.66 million yuan (renminbi). [18] Jinan Tianyi Printing Co., Ltd. established business links with Jinan Female Labor Camp, using unpaid labor to produce trademark stickers for the company. The trademarks include "Beijing Jiangyaling" and "Double Crane". In the workshops, where the colored patterns are printed, the smell of chemical paints causes severe irritation to the eyes and the respiratory system of the practitioners doing the forced labor. In order to lower production costs and increase profits, Jinan Tianyi Printing Co., Ltd. and the labor camp not only provided no protection for the workers, but also forced Falun Gong practitioners to work overtime and beyond their physical limit. Practitioners had to get up at 5:30 am and could not go to bed until 11:00 pm, working at least 15 hours a day, every day. In some cases, in order to finish the work sent in by these enterprises, the labor camp would force the practitioners to work through the night. [19] For those practitioners who could not finish their workload, they would have their terms in the labor camp extended. Some practitioners could not physically bear the long period of overtime, it became common for practitioners to faint in the workshops.
Qiqiha'er Shuanghe Labor Camp collaborated with Qiqiha'er Siyou Chemical Co. Ltd in Heilongjiang Province to use forced labor by Falun Gong practitioners
Qiqiha'er Shuanghe Female Labor Camp is an illegal processing site that has no government approved certificate for producing agricultural chemicals. It is involved solely in packaging agricultural chemicals for Qiqiha'er Siyou Chemical Co., Ltd. There are no facilities or workshops for producing agricultural chemicals in the labor camp, but Falun Gong practitioners were forced to pack very toxic pesticide powders with no protective clothing at all, which caused serious damage to the practitioners. Many practitioners had bleeding noses, others felt sick, vomited, had severe coughs (there was blood in their phlegm), suffered from abnormal bleeding and still others nearly went blind because the labor camp was filled with choking toxic pesticide dust. The victims were forced to continue their work even when they showed symptoms of being poisoned. On the packages, it is clearly stated that in producing the pesticides there must be necessary protective facilities and workers must take showers after work. However, there are no showers in the chemical factory. In the hot summer, when the chemical dust and sweat mixed together, it would irritate the skin and the sweat dried out, and resulted in tinea-type skin ulcers. The victims felt itchy and painful. If the policemen were angry, they would forbid practitioners to wash, so these practitioners had to go to bed with chemical dust all over their bodies.
Falun Gong practitioners Zhang Guiqin, Qi Baiqin, Lin Xiumei and Jiang Yuehong refused to work to protest the persecution, but they were tortured for doing so. They were forced to 'sit on iron chairs', a form of torture where their hands were handcuffed from behind their back, their feet were put into two square holes and they were sandwiched between the back of the iron chair and an iron slab in front of their chest. They were tortured until their feet were swollen, their skin torn and flesh gaping or they lost consciousness. Afterwards, six Falun Gong practitioners, headed by Gao Shanshan, jointly urged the authorities to stop the persecution. The labour camp confined Gao Shanshan into a solitary compartment at once and illegally extended her term in the labor camp for an additional two months to make this 20-year old practitioner suffer from psychological persecution. [21]
The team leader of the prison guards at the Shuanghe Female Labor Camp Zhang Zhijie and guard Chen Jianhua illegally extended most practitioners' terms of detention for another year so that they could maintain a high employment and high bonuses. The policemen were facing layoffs, and the more people they released the more likely they would be laid off.
In 1999 alone, the illegally detained Falun Gong practitioners earned a net profit of 180 thousand yuan (renminbi) for the labor camp. The policemen at Shuanghe Labor camp received several thousand yuan each as bonuses and the camp bought new cars. [20]
Because it was illegal to produce agricultural chemicals, when the authorities came to inspect the camp, production would stop immediately. Falun Gong practitioners were also forced to pack sanitized chopsticks in their dormitories where they did not have even basic disinfected facilities, not to mention proper workshops.
Shuanghe Labor Camp has also resorted to deception to cheat farmers. Every year during the pesticides seasons, the agricultural chemical factory would repack piles of expired or returned pesticide, change the expiration date and put them back on the market again. Falun Gong practitioners raised the issue with the four directors of the labour camp and the factory manager a number of times, saying that they should not cheat the farmers. However, Shuanghe Labor Camp ordered the four directors Zhang Zhijie, Guoli, Liu Shurong and Wang Mei to rebuke and punish these Falun Gong practitioners in return. [22]
References
[1] "Proposed Methods on Re-education-through-Labor", Ministry of Public Security, January 21st, 1985.(Back)
[2] "LAOGAI Handbook", Wu Hongda, Laogai Research Foundation.(Back)
[3] "Calls for reform challenges 'Laogai', which should be considered in the constitution revision", by Wang Bin, intern reporter, Nanjing Weekend, July 16th, 2003 at www.sina.com(Back)
[4] "International Labor Standard", International Labor Organization(Back)
[5] "State Council's Reply on the Re-statement to Forbid the Export of Products from Labor Camps", China's State Council, October 5th, 1991.(Back)
[6] Notice from the State Bureau of Taxation under China's Ministry of Financeon the continual exemption of land use tax and adjustment tax of fixed investment for enterprises of prisons and labor camps, March 13th, 1998.(Back)
[7] An investigation report on China's prisons and labor camps seeking trade and investments, World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, 2003(Back)
[8] Announcement of the Formation of the Committee to Investigate the Crimes of Persecution of Falun Gong Practitioners in China's Labour Camps, World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, 2003.(Back)
[9] A brief introduction of Beijing Mickey Toys Co., Ltd. 23 July 2003(Back)
[10] A testimony in 2003 by Falun Gong practitioner Jennifer Zheng regarding forced labor at Xin'an Female Labor Camp.(Back)
[11] "Cute toy rabbits belie ordeal of Chinese labor camps", Sydney Morning Herald, by Kelly Burke, December 28th, 2001. (http://old.smh.com.au/news/0112/28/national/national19.html)(Back)
[12] "Toys made in China" (Geneva Le Temps), by Frederic Koller, 13th April 2002 (Saturday, Economics edition)(Back)
[13] A record on the persecution of Falun Gong practitioner Wan Guifu.(Back)
[14] A brief introduction of Lanzhou Zhenglin Food Ltd and its profit(Back)
[15] Overseas sales and marketing of Lanzhou Zhenglin Food Ltd(Back)
[18] A brief introduction of Jinan Tianyi Printing Co. Ltd..(Back)
[19] Testimony on the collaboration between Jinan Tianyi Printing Co. Ltd. and Jinan Female Labor Camp(Back)
[20] Qiqiha'er Shuanghe Female Labor Camp forces Falun Gong practitioners to produce chemicals.(Back)
[21] The persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in Qiqiha'er Siyou Chemical Industry Co. Ltd. and Qiqiha'er Shuanghe labour camp.(Back)
[22] The fraudulent conduct of Qiqiha'er Siyou Chemical Industry Co. Ltd.(Back)
Appendix 1: Jennifer Zeng's description of Nestle toy rabbits
These rabbit toys are roughly 30-cm-long, brown in color, with a long neck, and wearing a large bright red collar made of fleece material around its neck. Both the body and collar are stuffed with man-made cotton wool. On the head is a small flower, with five petals, the same color as the body. The diameter of the flower is approximately 4cm. There are two black whiskers about 5-6 cm long on each side of its face. The upper whisker is slightly longer than the lower one by about 1 cm (or perhaps it is the other way round, I'm not too sure. But for sure one is 1 cm longer than the other one; it's likely that the upper one is the longer one). There are two white teeth in their mouths, a small part of their bright red tongue sticks out of their mouths, the mouths make it look like the rabbit is smiling. Their eyebrows are black in color. Some of the rabbits wear cowboy vests, some wear dust coats, and some have one eye covered with a patch like pirates. There are English letters on their chests, and their fists are clenched, right hand thumb up. There are three toes on their feet, canary yellow in color. Their tails are white in color and very short.
The process of making the toy rabbits
Usually a middle-aged woman rides a tricycle carrying the rabbits to be processed to the labor camp. The steps we did included: flip over the rabbit which had already been stitched from inside, stuff the man-made cotton wool into the back, neck, ears, the 5-petal small flower on the head, and collar. Thread a soft steel wire into the ears, stitch together the back and collar, sew on the whiskers, use thread to stitch the mouth so as to make the gaping mouth close a little bit. Sew the eyes to make it more firm, glue on the eyebrows, use thread to shape the fingers and toes on the hands and feet. (The hands and feet of the half-made product are in one piece; we used threads to pull back parts of the hand and foot tightly, so the dent looks like a finger groove.), Stitch on the tail, stick alphabets on the chests, etc. The tools used to stick the eyebrows and the alphabets on the chests look like a hot air gun. Except for the processes of sticking the eyebrows and the alphabets and stitching on the tails, I did all the other steps. The ears, 5-petal small flower and collar were separate from the body when they came to us. We stuffed man-made cotton wool into them. After filling the ears, we flipped them over and threaded a soft steel wire (or aluminum wire) into them. The process is as illustrated by the diagram.
If you can get hold of a rabbit, you can take apart the ear, flip it over to check where there is a small hole for stuffing man-made cotton wool. The 5-petal small flower also has a small hole for stuffing man-made cotton wool into the center of the flower.
The rabbit's collar is a circular loop, the diameter is about 4-5 cm. After stuffing in man-made cotton wool, it is directly sewn onto the rabbit from the outside with red thread. The sewing method is as illustrated in the diagram.
This is the first time I learnt this method of sewing in the labor camp. The thread is pulled after sewing and the two sides will appear very even. You cannot see any traces of the stitching. This method is also used to sew the rabbit's body from the back (if you can get hold of a rabbit and carefully pull it open, you can also see if a certain section of its collar and the section slightly above its back is sewn together using this method). Before sewing it up, it is first stuffed with man-made cotton wool. There is a wire in the body of the rabbit (slightly thicker than that in its ears, the wire seems to be two-ply, all the way through to the back of its head).
The whiskers are made using black nylon strings 1 mm thick. This kind of nylon string is about 50 cm long before being cut up for making the whiskers. It is threaded through a needle which is stuck into one side of the rabbit's cheeks through underneath its nose and out from the other cheek, leaving a 5-6cm long nylon string at the beginning spot where the needle was pricked into, thus forming the rabbit's whiskers. Then the nylon string is knotted so that it does not move and it is threaded back to the other cheek and cut off. The string is cut off so that it is around 1 cm shorter than the one above. After making the whiskers on one side, the two whiskers on the other cheek are completed using the same method. When the nylon string in the needle is used up, another is threaded in and the process is continued.
Appendix 2: Testimony of Falun Gong practitioners who were detained and forced to produce agricultural chemicals at Shuanghe labor camp in Qiqiha'er city
(Minghui.net) The Qiqiha'er North Siyou Chemical Plant (now Qiqiha'er Siyou Chemical Industry Co. Ltd), a private-owned enterprise, is situated a few kilometres away from the Shuanghe Labor Camp. Since November 1999 until now, many practitioners from Qiqiha'er City were illegally detained at the Shuanghe Labor Camp. The agricultural chemical plant has become a base for persecuting Dafa practitioners. At the same time, the Shuanghe Labor Camp took advantage of this opportunity to severely persecute Dafa practitioners. Practitioners were forced to walk all the way there through bare fields and over dikes and dams. During the summer, whenever it rained, they had to jog in the mud, and were subjected to the constant harassment from policemen and criminals. In the freezing winter, they had to make their way through knee-deep snow.
The polluted air in this chemical plant is so bad that even from a distance; you could smell a strong, rancid odor. Manufacturing work itself is dirty, painful tiring, and toxic. In production, heavy smoke full of chemical dust floated around the entire production unit, and settled all over a person's clothes, eyebrows, and eyelashes. Even wearing a few protective masks, practitioners were choked from the chemical exposure, with nasal passages and eyes becoming swollen. In addition, the Agricultural chemical plant is very toxic to people's health. Some practitioners incurred red eyes and faces, chapped hands, as well as major skin irritations all over their bodies. Some of the female practitioners stopped menstruating for a few months or even the entire year. There are no hazardous material suits provided and masks are only assigned to practitioners once. Gloves have never been assigned. It is clearly stipulated that all who handle or are in proximity to toxic substances, must take showers at the end of every day. However, practitioners were not permitted to take showers! Even though it was requested many times, nothing has been resolved. Practitioners were forced to work over the normal hours every day with no breaks permitted.
Every time when peak season came, the Agricultural chemical plant and the Shuanghe Labor Camp conducted a so-called "doing overtime spurt" in order to make sudden, huge profits. All of this, of course, was at the expense of practitioners' lives and safety. The truth is, this "overtime" is nothing more than forced slave labor using practitioners. The practitioners were overloaded with work day and night, made to wake up at four o'clock in the morning, and were also denied time to wash their faces or brush their teeth after eating a morning meal (consisting of thin vegetable soup and some buns). After this morning routine, they were ordered to the Siyou Chemical Industry Co. Ltd. During lunch, they only had a half an hour to eat and use the lavatory. After this, they were sent back to work immediately. At 11 p.m. they finished work and then had dinner. Upon returning to the dormitory, they were dirty, exhausted and hungry. Yet, the cruel policemen on duty often wouldn't let them wash up, so they had to go to sleep with chemical dust all over their bodies and faces. With the combined heat, over-exhaustion and sweat (combined with chemical dust), practitioners' skin became very itchy and painful. When the sweat evaporated from their skin, a
"ringworm" shaped rash appeared.
During the peak season for agricultural chemicals, the Agricultural chemical plant repackages poor-quality agricultural chemicals in an effort to create inventory in the plant. They also change the expiration dates and sell them again on the market, cheating whoever buys them. Some chemical products were in such bad condition they started to grow mould, yet they were pressed into carton boxes and sold. Truckloads of expired agriculture chemicals were shipped to this plant from its subsidiaries. Dafa practitioners had taken up this issue with four directors in the Shuanghe Labor Camp and the Agricultural Chemical plant head, in a solemn manner that they shouldn't cheat and harm farmers by practicing fraud. However, the Shuanghe Labor Camp and Siyou Chemical Industry Co. Ltd didn't listen at all; they asked people in charge of teams (Zhang Zhijie, Guo Li, Liu Shurong, Wang Mei) to curse at and force Dafa practitioners to continue packaging these products. Even until now, the Shuanghe Labor Camp and Siyou Agricultural chemical plant are still doing these kinds of unethical things.
The Shuanghe Labor Camp made sudden windfall profits by taking advantage of Dafa practitioners' and using them for their own greedy gain. Everyone in the labor camp was given thousands of yuan [Chinese dollar, the average monthly income of urban area is about 500 yuan] as bonuses. With the money, the authorities bought new cars and received better benefits. However, what they have gained are immoral assets by selling out their ethics.
Appendix 3: Testimony of Falun Gong practitioner, Ling Shenli: "I have been forced to make rubber sports balls in a labor camp"
My name is Lin Shenli and my nationality is Chinese. I was born in Shanghai on November 16, 1954. I am currently residing in Toronto, Canada.
I started to practice Falun Gong in 1996. On July 21, 1999, under Jiang Zemin's insane persecution of Falun Gong, I was kidnapped by the police, who locked me up in a police station for two months. This was just so that I could be brainwashed into giving up Falun Gong. On December 24 the same year, I went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. I was again arrested and sent back to Shanghai Pingliang Police Station. I was locked up for 48 hours, and then I was detained for a further 15 days because I had refused to give up my belief in "Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance". On January 24, 2000, because I called on the government to have a peaceful dialogue with Falun Gong practitioners, I was sentenced to one and a half years in a labor camp. I was sent to The No. 3 Labor Camp and was assigned to the 1st Section of the 2nd Division. The address is PO Box 1/902, Shichahe, Dafeng, Jiangsu.
In the labor camp, every morning I was forced to get up to start work around 6:00 am. I was not allowed to stop until 9:00 pm. The work was manual labor, making rubber sports balls. It involved using iron needles to punch holes and then using threads to stitch through the holes and the two threads had to be pulled and tightened at the end of the process. After long periods of the same repeated tasks, my hands got mutilated by the threads and started to bleed. The threads were waxed and prisoners informed me that wax is poisonous. That explained why both of my hands were swollen and infected. Due to long hours of intensive labor work, a large area of my chest and buttocks began to bleed and ulcerate. Especially, in the ulcerated buttock area, blood seeped onto my underwear and tracksuit pants. Every day my clothes were like they had been soaked in blood and water. As the blood dried up on my underwear and then became wet again, several times a day, the underwear would eventually get stuck onto my skin. This made walking very difficult, including taking off my underwear when going to the toilet. Every time when I had to force it off, a layer of my skin would be peeled off as well. At night, I couldn't sleep properly because I couldn't lie down. Coupled with the long hours of hard intensive labor work, I was exhausted. If I did fall asleep at night, it was restless as, if I accidentally touched the sore parts of my body, I would be woken up by the most excruciating pain. Even though I was in this condition, I was not allowed to rest. I was still forced to work intensively. Through forced labor, the cost of the production of goods in China was kept very low. It didn't matter whether we were Falun Gong practitioners or criminals, we didn't get paid for our work. A variety of rubber sports balls were made, including Adidas and some Japanese brands. Some were made for souvenirs and exported, as I was informed by prisoners while they were teaching me how to make the balls. They were not only exploiting prisoners to earn foreign exchange currency, but they also wanted me to give up my belief in "Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance".
When I refused, they extended my term for a further six months. Hence I was detained in labor camp for a total of two years.
Lin Shenli
November 4, 2003
Appendix 4: Testimony of Falun Gong practitioner Sam Lu on the export of products produced in forced labor camps
Sam Lu's Personal Experience: Why Are China's Products so Cheap?
I used to be a graduate student in Georgia State University in 1996. I'd like to share my personal experience to let people know why some products from China are so cheap.
Before I returned to the USA in February 2001, I worked as a tax auditor in China for 9 years. On June 7, 2000, I was arrested in China only because I handed in a letter at the State Appeal Bureau in Beijing to express my opinion about Falun Gong, which is a traditional exercise based on "Truthfulness--Compassion--Forbearance", and is being persecuted in China. I was put in a jail in Guangdong Province for almost two months.
Here I will not mention how the Chinese government persecuted family church members, Tibetan Monks and Falun Gong practitioners .I only want to let you know how some products from China are made and why they are so cheap.
In prison, I was forced to work on export products such as toys and shopping bags without pay .I still remember one of the shopping bags was printed with "National Gallery of Art (# #)"
The cell was only about 300 sq. feet in size, with 20 prisoners and one toilet inside. They slept and worked in the cell.
Sometimes we were forced to work until 2:00 am to keep up with the schedule. They only provided two meals a day (only once a week you have meat in your food). In other words, being hungry, you still need to work more than 15 hours per day.
The police used a wire whip to beat you if you did not do a good job or you could not keep up with the schedule.
During this desperate time in prison, I was always wondering who gave them the business and who helped them to abuse us.
Now the same kind of tragedy is happening to my wife. She was sentenced to forced labor camp for three years without any trial and without a lawyer only because she handed out flyers in the street to clarify to the Truth about Falun Gong. She has already been detained for more than 34 months.
In my wife's letter to my parents, she mentioned that she was forced to do embroidery work for export. The hard work, malnutrition and torture made my wife almost lose her eyesight.
In that female labor camp alone where my wife is detained now, about 3000 female Falun Gong practitioners have been detained there and forced to work for export business.
According to human rights organizations, there are more than 100,000 Falun Gong practitioners detained in China's Forced Labor Camps .How many people other than Falun Gong practitioners are detained in forced labor camps and prisons and are forced to work without pay for China's export business? Who knows?
Sam Lu
250 VILLANOVA DR. ATLANTA,GA 30336
TEL:404-629-6262 (O) 678-595-7229 (C)
Samlu69@hotmail.com
World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong
Tel：1-347-448-5790；Fax：1-347-402-1444；
Mailing Address：P.O. Box 84， New york, NY 10116
Website： http://www.upholdjustice.org/, http://www.zhuichaguoji.org/
