Exposing the Unsanitary Conditions of the Food Packing Processes at the Shanxi Province Women's Forced Labor Camp

(Clearwisdom.net) There are two large, well-known enterprises in Shanxi Province. One is the Shuanghecheng Food Enterprise Group and the other is the Fen Liquor Enterprise Group with its headquarters in Fenyang City, Shanxi Province. Both enterprises started using prison labor from Xindian Women's Forced Labor Camp in Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province, to pack their products in 2006. Before the Moon Festival on August 15, 2006, the camp packed over a million boxes of moon cakes for the Shuanghecheng Food Enterprise Group.

No one who participated in making the boxes, packing the moon cakes, or delivering the food had a health certificate issued by the Epidemic Prevention Department. The environment and the hygienic conditions where the work was done were extremely unsanitary. In fact, the packing boxes were prepared on the ground outside. No one checked or managed the processes. All they cared about was the quantity of output. Most of the inmates doing the work were drug addicts and many of them had diseases.

The Fen Liquor Enterprise Groups’ boxes for holding the liquor bottles also are manufactured by the camp, and most of the liquor is exported to the US. The manufacturing conditions there also do not conform to hygienic standards. The cardboard is cut in the same area where the boxes are glued. As the cardboard is cut, small pieces fly everywhere and the glue that is used smells very bad. Its strong order will linger for a long time in the liquor boxes.

The Meitehao Chain Supermarkets also use camp labor to do a lot of packing. In addition, the camp forces inmates to produce cigarette lighters that use toxic gas. The people who work there and have to inhale the poisonous gas and the strong smells of box glue and oily machines are not issued any personal protection. Many people have had various reactions due to breathing the noxious air.

In the camp, the guards use extremely cruel methods to "reform" and persecute the Falun Gong practitioners who firmly believe in "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance." They instigate the drug addict inmates to monitor the practitioners all day. They brutally beat the practitioners and frequently don’t allow the practitioners to go to the restroom or have any rest for 24 hours. The camp is well aware that some of the practitioners have various female diseases and infectious diseases due to the long-term persecution. However, the camp still forces the practitioners to work overtime. The practitioners have to work over ten hours per day.

These well-known enterprises do business with the forced labor camps mainly because the camp's labor is very cheap and they can avoid paying taxes and avoid the quarantine. Doing this not only significantly harms people's health but also, more seriously, it supports the persecution of Falun Gong. Therefore, the international community and the people in China should pay more attention to this issue.

Personnel of the No. 3 Division of Shanxi Province Women's Forced Labor Camp:

Political instructor Liu Zhongmei

Head of No. 3 Division Lei Hongzhen

Guards Wang Dali, Zhao Wenlian, Kong Jianying, Chen Donghui, Shang Xiujian, Yan Xiaoli, Liang Junxia, Shi Jian, Chen Chunxiang.

No 3 Division: 86-351-278-5803

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2007/1/16/146951.html

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