By a Dafa practitioner from Xinjiang Autonomous Region, China
(Clearwisdom.net)
Changji Labor Camp in Xinjiang Province (5 km away from Wujiaqu City)
Beginning in 1999, the Xinjiang Tianshan Wooltex Stock Corporation, Ltd.
joined labor camps and prisons in Xinjiang Province to persecute Falun Gong
practitioners.
The Labor Camp Bureau and Prison Administration in Mainland China assign
financial goals to labor camps and prisons. In order to reach that goal and to
make money for themselves, the authorities of these institutions conspire with
corporations to exploit the detainees' labor.
After the persecution of Falun Gong in Mainland China began in July 1999,
many Falun Gong practitioners in Xinjiang Province were sent to various labor
camps and prisons. The authorities there collaborated with the Xinjiang Tianshan
Wooltex Stock Corporation, LTD. and with the Changji Special Transformer Factory
in Xinjiang to force Falun Gong practitioners do slave labor.
Xinjiang Tianshan Wooltex Stock Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Tianshan
Wooltex") is one of the first joint venture enterprises in China established
after the regulations concerning Sino-foreign joint venture enterprises were
published. Tianshan Wooltex is a joint venture woolen textile enterprise, with
joint venture capital from four companies, namely Urumqi Woolen Textile Co.,
Hong Kong Tianshan Woolen Textile Co., Ltd. (Which consists of Hong Kong
Peninsula Knitting Co., Ltd., Dongyang (Japan) Spinning Industry Co., Ltd.),
Hong Kong International Cotton Industry Co., Ltd. and the Xinjiang Uygur
Autonomous Region Supply and Market Cooperative.
Since 1990, Tianshan Wooltex has done business with various labor camps and
prisons in Xinjiang Province in order to exploit the detainees' labor. They did
so in order to lower costs and improve its ability to gain more of an
international market share. Currently, the Wulabo Labor Camp, Xinjiang Women's
Labor Camp, Changji Labor Camp, No. 3 Prison of Xinjiang Province and No. 5
Prison of Xinjiang Province all have workshops owned by Tianshan Wooltex in
their backyards. The detainees at the above-mentioned locations are forced to
work for Tianshan Wooltex and mass produce several types of cashmere sweaters.
If one could observe how these sweaters are produced, one would recognize the
cruel abuse the detainees are subjected to.
Falun Gong Practitioners Are Major Targets For Slave Labor
In August 2000, male Falun Gong practitioners being held at different labor
camps in Xinjiang were sent to Division Six of the Changji Labor Camp. Division
Six became the designated place for the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.
It is also the main location where products for Tianshan Wooltex are made and
processed. Between the years 2000 and 2002, more than 50 Falun Gong
practitioners were forced to work for Tianshan Wooltex in labor camp workshops.
When Tianshan Wooltex receives an order, it sends it over to the labor camps
and prisons, at the same time providing them with raw materials. It also gives a
deadline by which time Tianshan Wooltex will buy back the finished products at
an extremely low price. In order to meet the deadline, the guards at the labor
camps and prisons often coerce the detainees to work days on end with no sleep.
Many detainees at Division One of Changji Labor Camp in Xinjiang Province are routinely denied sleep several weeks out of the month. They work an average of
more than 20 hours a day. They can only take a short nap after dawn on the
platform where they make the sweaters. When they work on the machines, they
often have to work for one day and one night at a time. Most of them have
swollen legs from malnutrition and exhausting labor conditions. The workshop is
only 200 meters (about 850 feet) from the cafeteria, but most detainees do not
have time to eat breakfast. The guards often get a bucket of porridge -- lunch
for the detainees. The guards treat the detainees as robots, and when they are
too worn out to work, the guards would give them a whipping to force them to
continue.
When seeing workers fall asleep, the guards shock them with electric batons
and order the head of the workshop, also an inmate, to hit them with bricks and
wooden clubs. If the detainee fails to complete his assigned work, the guard
would cuff him to a heating pipe, strip him naked and shock his neck, armpits,
abdomen, private areas, mouth and ears with electric batons, in addition to
extending their detention term.
Jiang's annihilation policy against Falun Gong, "defame their reputations,
bankrupt them financially and destroy them physically" allowed Tianshan Wooltex
to provide space and financial support for labor camps and prisons that engage
in the exploitation of detainees. They are especially malicious in torturing
Falun Gong practitioners.
The guards from Division Six in the Changji Labor Camp force determined Dafa
practitioners to do heavy manual labor, to build vegetable cellars in the day
and knit sweaters all night long. Exhausted Dafa practitioners often fall asleep
at night while knitting the sweaters, and the guards would then poke them with
needles and scissors. Dafa practitioner Wang Jianping from Kelamayi has a
handicapped left hand and is slow in knitting the sweaters, so the guards threw
bricks on his chest and back. Sometimes when the practitioners make a mistake,
the inspector would verbally abuse them and extort money from them. Tianshan
Wooltex often forces detainees who have no source of income to pay for ruined
sweaters, and the result would be that the detainee receives an extension to his
term.
Tianshan Wooltex Sends Local Inspectors To Labor Camps And Prisons
Every time government inspectors come to the labor camp, the guards at
Division Six fear Dafa practitioners may expose the truth, so they lock the
practitioners in the basement or force them to work in the fields until the
inspectors have left.
Tianshan Wooltex sends its own inspectors to each workshop at the Changji
Labor Camp. These inspectors witness the atrocities of labor exploitation and
torture on a daily basis, but they pretend they don't know. Na Ren is one such
inspector who overlooks sweater production at Division Six.
People in charge at Tianshan Wooltex at various levels often visit the
Changji Labor Camp and prisons. Prior to their visit, the labor camp would put
up a banner that reads "Welcome xx to come and inspect." This is still ongoing.
Profits Made Off Slave Labor Are Used To Build More Facilities
When the labor camps and prisons receive large amounts of money from the sale
of the sweaters abroad, they would build more office buildings, workshops and
confinement rooms. They would also purchase electric batons, handcuffs, torture
tools, televisions, and VCDs to reward guards who torture Falun Gong
practitioners and recruit more guards to persecute determined Falun Gong
practitioners.
Each Sweater Is Cursed at by the Inmates
Other than Falun Gong practitioners, ordinary detainees are also forced to do
slave labor. Because of long-term overwork, lack of sleep, malnutrition, stress
and lack of medical care, many detainees contracted tuberculosis, hepatitis,
scabies, and asthma, among other ailments. However, sick detainees are still
forced to work.
Because the detainees are not allowed to take a shower for very long periods
of time, lice along with pus and blood from the detainees' body are sometimes
rubbed off on the sweaters. Because the inmates loathe being treated as slaves,
they intentionally wipe the filthiest things from their bodies and other places
on the sweaters as a form of revenge. Because the sweaters are processed several
times before they are sold, the dirty things and blood usually disappear after
the final step.
After suffering all kinds of torture at Division Six in the Changji Labor
Camp, a detainee said, "The first thing I'll do after I go home is to buy a
Tianshan sweater and burn it on the spot!"
Here we want to call on all international boards of accreditation, foreign
businesses and textile mills, weaving and knitting corporations to boycott the
sweaters sold by Tianshan Wooltex, stained with the detainees' blood.
Let's join efforts in ending the exploitation of Falun Gong practitioners by
Tianshan Wooltex.
Since similar incidents are commonplace in prisons and labor camps all across
Mainland China where Falun Gong practitioners are held, we call for Dafa
practitioners in China and abroad to expose this crime and tell the world's
people about Jiang's persecution of Falun Gong, and to help indirect persecutors
to see their role in this crime, and to cut off the evildoers' financial
resources.
Attached: reference material
Xinjiang Tianshan Wooltex Stock Corporation, Ltd. tries its best to cover up
this crime. The "Tianshan" trademark was identified as a "famous Chinese brand"
by the State Administration of Industry and Commerce. "Tianshan" products were
awarded the State Quality Certificate of Exemption from Inspection in March
2002. Moreover, Tianshan Wooltex produces sweaters for brands of other
well-known enterprises in the world, such as Banana Republic, Neiman Marcus,
Holt Renfrew, Ports, Minimum, Bon Genie, Tutti Colori, Espina, Cream, Anivee F,
Son June Wan, French Connection, and others. Orders from Banana Republic number
between 200,000 and 280,000 pieces every year.
Dafa practitioners who are being illegally held at the Changji Labor Camp for
slave labor include Guo Shuyan, Han Jinzhong, Gong Hailiang, Liu Anhong, Ge
Lijun, among others.
Person in charge at Tianshan Wooltex:
Zhang Ziqiang, chairman and secretary of the Party Committee. He once held
positions of: deputy head of Urumqi City Organization Department, deputy manager
of Urumqi City Labor Service Company, head of Urumqi City Goods and Material
Bureau.
Xinjiang Tianshan Wooltex Stock Co, Ltd. Address: No.1 Yinchuan Road, Urumqi, Xinjiang, China Post Code: 830054 Tel: 86-991-4311866-6834 Fax: 86-991-4310472 E-Mail: Business@Chinatianshan.Com
Xinjiang Tianshan Wooltex Hong Kong Office Ltd Address: Block B&C, 9/F, 702 Castle Peak Road, Hop Hingind Bldg, Kowloon,
Hong Kong Tel: 852-27418591 Fax: 852-27860197
Changji Labor Camp in Xinjiang Office: 86-994-5816156 Division One: 86-994-5816100 Division Six: 86-994-5816092 Division Five: 86-994-5816303 Watchdog Division: 86-994-5816389 Statistics Division: 86-994-5816276
Perpetrators at the Changji Labor Camp: Zhu Xuefei: former political secretary of Changji Labor Camp, currently
political secretary of the Wusu Labor Camp in Xinjiang Li Jianjiang: currently political secretary of Changji Labor Camp Wang Xiaofei: deputy head of the labor camp Zhang Yan: deputy head of the Administration Section Gu Jianhai: former instructor of Division Six, which specializes in the
persecution of Falun Gong Chen Jiang: current instructor of Division Six Tian Hu: deputy head of Division Six Ma Longyue: deputy head of Division Six Wang Feng: instructor of Division Six Wang Qi: instructor of Division Six Ning Tao: instructor of Division One
Posting date: 3/14/2004
Original article date: 3/13/2004
Category: Eye Witness Accounts
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/3/9/69369.html