Chinese version at:
http://www.upholdjustice.org/NEWS/about_6/2003-11/1068183097.html
Beijing Mickey
Toys Co., Ltd, Nestle, and Beijing Xin'an Female Labor Camp
Lanzhou Zhenglin
Nongken Food Ltd
Appendix
1: Jennifer Zeng's description of Nestle toy rabbits
Investigative Report on Forced Labor Products Made by Falun
Gong Practitioners in China's Labor Camps (Part I)
World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun
Gong(WOIPFG), established on 23rd January 2003, is committed
to systemically investigating the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in
China by Jiang Zemin and the 610 Office system under his command
and the forced labor camps, detention centers, prisons, etc. This report focuses
on the evidence of forced labor products made by unlawfully 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
Li 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 a land acquisition 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 Nestle
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.
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 Nestle 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 Nestle 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”.
Nestlereleased 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.
Photo shows 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 Camphas 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]
[1] “Proposed Methods
on Re-education-through-Labor”, Ministry of Public Security, January 21st,
1985.
[2] “LAOGAI Handbook”,
Wu Hongda, Laogai Research Foundation.
[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
[4] “International
Labor Standard”, International Labor Organization
[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.
[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.
[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
[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.
[9] A brief introduction
of Beijing Mickey Toys Co., Ltd. 23 July 2003
[10] A testimony
in 2003 by Falun Gong practitioner Jennifer Zheng regarding forced labor
at Xin'an Female Labor Camp.
[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)
[12] “Toys made
in China” (Geneva Le Temps), by Frederic Koller, 13th
April 2002 (Saturday, Economics edition)
[13] A record on
the persecution of Falun Gong practitioner Wan Guifu.
[14] A brief introduction
of Lanzhou Zhenglin Food Ltd and its profit
[15] Overseas sales
and marketing of Lanzhou Zhenglin Food Ltd
[18] A brief introduction
of Jinan Tianyi Printing Co. Ltd..
[19] Testimony
on the collaboration between Jinan Tianyi Printing Co. Ltd. and Jinan
Female Labor Camp
[20] Qiqiha'er
Shuanghe Female Labor Camp forces Falun Gong practitioners to produce
chemicals.
[21] The persecution
of Falun Gong practitioners in Qiqiha'er Siyou Chemical Industry
Co. Ltd. and Qiqiha'er Shuanghe labour camp.
[22] The fraudulent
conduct of Qiqiha'er Siyou Chemical Industry Co. Ltd.
Appendix 1: Description
of Nestle toy rabbits by Jennifer Zeng.
Appendix 2: Testimony
of Falun Gong practitioners who were detained and forced to produce agricultural
chemicals at Qiqiha'er Shuanghe Labor Camp
Appendix 3: Testimony
of Falun Gong practitioner Lin Shenli, “I have been forced to make rubber
sports balls in a labor camp”
Appendix 4: Testimony
of Falun Gong practitioner Sam Lu on the export of products produced in
forced labor camps
Appendix 1: Jennifer Zeng's description of
Nestletoy 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.
Illustration 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.
Illustration 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.
(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.
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
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
( OCT.16,2003)
Posting date: 13/Dec/2003
Original article date: 10/Dec/2003
Category: Media Reports
Chinese version available at http://www.upholdjustice.org/NEWS/about_6/2003-11/1068183097.html
