Tianjin City Women's Forced Labor Camp Exports Products Made by Slave Labor

(Clearwisdom.net) Since the persecution of Falun Gong began in July 1999, Tianjin City Women's Forced Labor Camp has detained many Dafa practitioners. The camp forces practitioners to make products for export, and practitioners suffer both mentally and physically. At the beginning of 2003 and 2004, the camp twice reorganized its teams where practitioners are detained. At present, all of the practitioners have been transferred to Dagang District, Tianjin City, and put into three teams: Team 1, Team 2 and Special Team (this is a team where the determined practitioners are more brutally tortured). In Dagang District, practitioners are forced to do hard labor and deprived of their basic human rights.

The camp has contracts with some bean vendors. Under the contracts, the camp is responsible for putting beans into individual bags weighing from 110 lbs. to 180 1bs. For each bag of beans, the camp earns 0.8 Yuan (1). Practitioners are forced to put beans in bags and carry them to a designated place. The working conditions are very poor. Practitioners are often forced to work overtime and deprived of sleep. Many practitioners had to receive IV injections at their own expense because they were too tired and needed nutrition.

The camp also has contracts with clothing manufacturers and is responsible for making shirts that are mostly exported to Japan. For each shirt made, the camp earns 4 Yuan. Often each team is assigned to sew 100 shirts at one time and has to finish the quota within several days. The camp can net a profit of at least 500 Yuan with each contract. From 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. on December 25, 2003, and from 6:00 a.m. on December 26 to 4:20 a.m. on December 27, 2003, practitioners were forced to make shirts and were only allowed 2 hours of sleep during the several days. Some practitioners fell asleep with needles and thread in their hands, and some practitioners' hands became numb. The police punished practitioners using various means. For instance, if a practitioner dropped the needle and could not find it, he or she would not be allowed to sleep. If a practitioner was found to not reach the quality standard for the shirt, he or she would be fined 100 Yuan, etc. Even practitioners in their late 50s and 60s were not spared from this.

Additionally, the camp has contracts with bakery companies and wine companies, and is responsible for making papers used to wrap baked goods and wines. The camp receives 1 cent for each sheet of thin paper, and 2 cents for each sheet of thick paper made. Each assignment contains tens of thousands of sheets of paper. Practitioners are forced to make such papers day in and day out. Many laborers feel dizzy and muddle headed while doing these tasks.

In addition to making the above-mentioned products, practitioners are also forced to make car floor pads, labels used on shoes exported to the U.S., shoes, and other items.

Since products made by slave labor are of very low cost, they are very competitive in international markets. The camp officials violate Chinese laws and international laws by conducting such illegal trade. They abuse the money earned from slaving practitioners. On the one hand, they put the money into building more facilities to detain more practitioners. On the other hand, they use the money for their personal gain.

(1) Yuan is the Chinese currency. The average monthly salary of an urban worker in China is 500 Yuan.

August 8, 2004

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/8/12/81594.html

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