(Clearwisdom.net) In democratic countries, forced labor camps like those
in China are regarded as illegitimate facilities because people held there have
not been through the judicial process. However, in the "unique"
political system under the Chinese Communist Party, innocent people are
arbitrarily deprived of their freedom and sent to "education through labor
camps." The prisons and labor camps in China have become underground
factories. Companies owned by prisons and labor camps are exempt from income and
property taxes, as the regime wants to encourage economic growth and to attract
foreign investment at any cost. Due to low-cost labor, products made at these places flood the world market
with artificially low prices, bringing prison and labor camp authorities who
raise work quotas and further exploit detainees tremendous profits. A part of
the income is used to build additional incarceration facilities. A map of the Shanghai Women's Forced Labor Camp Shanghai Changfu Toy Co., Ltd. Products from Shanghai Changfu Toy Co., Ltd. Products from Shanghai Changfu Toy Co., Ltd. Products from Shanghai Changfu Toy Co., Ltd. Shanghai Women's Labor Camp was officially put into use in 2001. From the
outside, it looks like a giant garden, yet its appearance is very deceptive.
Detainees here are treated with great cruelty. 1. After entering the front gate, or Gate No 1, one sees a police building
and a reception room. Factory staff live inside the building. 2. Going straight forward, passing through the electronically activated Gate
2, is where detainees are held. The gate guards' office is located right next to
the gate. All trucks coming to or from the factory pass through this gate. 3. The labor camp houses the Qingyuan Art School. It exists mostly to deceive
visitors, and also to take money from detainees' families. Detainees are
rewarded with points [the point system correlates with sentence reduction] if
they take classes here. The tuition for each class costs between 600 Yuan and
800 Yuan. Many detainees take the classes in the hopes of getting out of the
hell-like conditions inside sooner. The first-aid office is located on the
ground floor, and the reception room is located on the second floor. 4. The camp cafeteria snatches what little pay the detainees are doled out
and puts it back into camp officials' pockets. 5. The flagpole in the middle of the camp is where detainees are made aware
of their "status" and are forced to swear loyalty to the CCP. Those
who disobey or express different opinions are punished with longtime standing,
running ten laps, solitary confinement, handcuffing and eating terrible food,
among other things. They are tortured until they are exhausted and "bow
their heads and confess their crimes." The flagpole area is the place where
activities are conducted and detainees are "fixed." 6. In the Newcomers' Division 1, to meet the requirement of profit for the
labor camp, people are first "disciplined" for three months, where
heart-wrenching screams are familiar sounds. These people are made examples of
to intimidate other detainees. Living quarters are located on the first and
second floors and are designed to deceive visitors. The other floors are
assembly lines. 7. Division 5 is located on the fifth floor, close to Division 2. People held
here are exclusively Falun Gong practitioners who live and work in total
isolation and are forbidden to leave without permission. Camp authorities send
inmates to deliver food to the practitioners in a cart in order to keep the
practitioners separated from the rest of the detainees. 8. Division 3 holds repeat drug offenders. The first floor and second floor
are assembly lines, and the rest are living quarters. 9. Division 2 also holds repeat drug offenders, but it's a "strictly
controlled" division. Living quarters can be found on the third and fourth
floor, with assembly lines in the rest of the building. 10. The Qingyuan Supermarket was recently built. The shopping area is on the
ground floor; assembly lines are on the second and third
floor, which produce electronic products. The second floor belongs to Division 2
and the third floor belongs to Division 4, a drug rehabilitation division. The
conference room is on the fourth floor. Since 1999, an unknown number of Falun Gong practitioners in Shanghai have
been forced to work against their wills and without pay in this so-called
"garden-like" camp. Those who persevere and safeguard their belief in
Truth-Compassion-Forbearance are starved and subjected to corporal punishment
such as eating bad food, long-term standing and sitting, sleep deprivation.
Sometimes the authorities suspend the practitioners by their cuffed hands from
metal bars outside the window, such that their feet barely touch the ground.
They encourage other inmates to verbally and physically attack Falun Gong
practitioners. They extend the practitioners' terms and forbid family visits.
The Communist regime often advocates "human rights is first the right of
living" while slyly taking away the right of living from Falun Gong
practitioners. Suicides are common among the detainees, as the hellish life soon becomes
intolerable for many. For this reason, lights in the cells are left on at night
so the guards can check on inmates. The saying, "We work from [the hour
when] rooster crows until the ghosts whisper" describes the busy forced
labor schedule. The cheap products made in these labor camps are attractive to foreign buyers
because they can be sold so cheaply. Many foreign corporations thus have
unintentionally violated their country's laws and international laws when they
import these products, as many international pacts ban the importation and sale
of products made under such inhumane conditions. Many Chinese companies contract
with labor camps and prisons to benefit from the free labor. Examples include
Shanghai Three Gun Co., Ltd., Shanghai Daphne Shoe Co., Ltd., Shanghai Global
Toy Co., Ltd., Shanghai Yousheng Toy Co., Ltd., Shanghai Shenxin Toy Co., Ltd.,
Shanghai Changfu Toy Co., Ltd., Shanghai Haixin Co., and three Haixin Co.'s
branch companies: Haiyan Toy Co., Ltd., Haixin Toy Co., Ltd., Haili Toy Co.,
Ltd., among many others. The camp's Division 3 signed a contract with the Shanghai Three Gun Co., Ltd.
The detainees at this division became workers of the corporation. Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Li Ying was illegally sentenced to two years of
forced labor in 2001. She was forced to make products for numerous Chinese
companies while being held at Division 3, such as stuffed animal toys for export
to Italy, and cotton underwear for Three Gun. In fact, the cotton underwear
imprinted with the logo "Inspection No. 16" sold by Three Gun are all
made by detainees at Shanghai Women's Forced Labor Camp. Ms. Li Ying was coerced
to do various types of hard labor, including harvesting broad beans and pulling
wild grass (for fertilizer) in the summer, making all kinds of toys, making
leather shoes, purses, package dolls, sewing flowers, making decorative
"eye knots," produce colored light bulbs and assembling automated
Mahjong gambling machines. The detainees get up at 5 a.m. and start work before
7:00 a.m. often laboring until midnight. The detainees often have blisters on
their hands from the constant heavy work. They are paid three Yuan [35 cents US]
a day. Although the labor camp policy states detainees should not work past 9:00
p.m., they are usually made to work until 11 p.m. and sometimes as late as 3
a.m. the next day. The detainees toil to meet their quotas, and their fingers
became swollen and ache so severely the pain wakes them up at night. Some can
barely pull the needles when sewing flowers in the morning due to
soreness and pain. They have to use pliers to manipulate the needles instead. Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Bo Gendi was also held at Division 3. She was
assigned an extra heavy workload during the first two years because she
safeguarded the belief in Truth, Compassion and Forbearance. As a result she
rarely had time to sleep and sometimes she would even fall asleep while
standing. In the summer she processed colored light bulbs with an electronic
heating device in the room of temperature over 40 0C [104 0F].
Under such condition, the guards once did not let her shower or change her
clothes for nine days. Her shirt was soaked in sweat though it was soon
air-dried in the scorching heat; then it was again soaked. Her worn-out shirt
became crusted with salty crystals. Late at night the guards locked her outside
to "feed the mosquitoes." Ms. Bo Gendi was given "prison food"--one liang [less than 2
ounces] of rice and a few vegetable leaves boiled in water for each meal. For a
while the guards used to threaten people by saying, "Do you want to follow
Bo Gendi and go on the 'prison food' diet?" This is why many people
released from the labor camp are skin and bones--starvation is one of the
"disciplinary actions." The common inmates could still meet with their families and obtain things
from them, but Bo Gendi was deprived of all visitation rights. She was forbidden
to receive or send any mail or packages. She was paid 75 Yuan a month for living
expenses, but each "meal" cost 3 Yuan. After paying for the food, she
only had enough left to buy only toilet paper. Even toothpaste and soap were
unattainable luxuries for her. Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Chen Wenying, 40, was held at the former Division
4. She appealed for justice for Falun Gong in Beijing in July 2000 and was held
at the Xuhui District Detention Center under criminal detention, followed by 18
months of incarceration at the Shanghai Women's Labor Camp. The guards coerced
her daily to write guarantee statements. When she refused, they handcuffed her
and made her stand in the corner for seven days, sometimes longer, during which
someone had to feed her, and she was kept handcuffed even when she relieved
herself. The camp authorities did not let her family see her for four months.
She has suffered a nervous breakdown and can no longer recognize people.
Although she was eventually freed, she could not lead a normal life. Her
practitioner husband Guo Jinfu was sentenced to three years in prison by agents
from the Xuhui District Court in Shanghai in December 2006 and was transferred
to Division 1 at the Tilanqiao Prison in Shanghai this year (2007). During the
past year (2006-2007), his wife Chen Wenying was sent to the mental hospital
five times after her nervous breakdown when she could no longer recognize
people. The local 610 Office agents and government officials refused
to tell the family anything about Guo Jinfu when they inquired about his
condition. Practitioner Ms. Chen Jingfang from the Jiading District was transferred from
Division 5 to Division 4 because she refused to "reform." She was kind
and always ready to help people. Nevertheless, camp authorities withheld her
meager allowance and gave her "prison food" for two years. The regime
allocates funds for the detention of Falun Gong practitioners in Shanghai, yet
the camp officials embezzle the money while exploiting the practitioners' labor. Division 2 used to produce mainly stuffed animals, but it has changed focus
and added electronic products. The assembly-line workshop is on the second floor
of the Qingyuan Supermarket. The detainees there process electronic components
for the Wujiang Electronic Equipment Co., Ltd. For example, the Red Triangle Stuffed Toy Factory is located in Xujing Town,
Shanghai, and its website states: "The [Red Triangle] Stuffed Toy Factory in Xujing Town, Shanghai
specializes in making stuffed animals. Within ten years, we have created about
1,000 varieties [of toys] and are capable of producing 4.8 million toys
annually. All of our products are exported by Shanghai Toy I/E Company, China
Light Industry Toy I/E Company and Shanghai Shenhua I/E Co., Ltd. to more than
20 countries and regions including the USA, France, England, Canada, Japan,
Netherlands, and Hong Kong." "Our factory's motto is quality comes first, reputation comes first, and
customers come first. We take quality control seriously and we own various test
equipment and inspection tools that conform to international standards. We have
also strengthened internal control within the enterprise and worked hard to
lower production costs. In recent years the quality of our products has earned
us positive remarks and the trust of our clients, both inside China and
abroad." Address: Third Floor, Red Triangle Building, Xujing Town, Qingpu District,
Shanghai, Zip code: 201702 This Red Triangle Stuffed Toy Factory has 50 labor camp detainees as its
employees. Shanghai Changfu Toy Co., Ltd. "Shanghai Changfu Toy Co., Ltd. is a relatively large private toy
company in east China. We have two branch companies: Shanghai Minhang Five Star
Hat Factory and Changfu Toy Co., Ltd. in Funing County, Jiangsu Province. We
make stuffed animals, shoes and various types of hats. Our products are sold by
Shanghai Light Industry International Group Pudong Company and Shanghai Art
& Craft I/E Company. We sell to the USA, Japan, Turkey, Europe and many
other countries and regions. Our annual export revenue is 15 million US
dollars." "Currently, our company has more than 20,000 square meters [over 200,000
sq. ft.] of production work area, more than 800 sewing machines and
1,500 employees, including 30 designers." Labor camp authorities actually double-contract the detainees efforts. Those
who have been hired by one company are also forced to work for other companies
so the corrupt officials can double their earnings. As a result, the detainees
have to do twice as much work. Division 2 is a "strictly controlled division" where the detainees
are assigned seemingly endless work. They get up at 5:10 a.m., start working at
6 a.m. and work until 10 p.m. or 11 p.m. each day. They work more than 15 hours
before washing themselves and going to bed. They sleep about four hours, and
sometimes they are forced to work extra hours without any break. All detainees
look terribly sleep-deprived and malnourished. The detainees said they are on
the verge of nervous breakdowns. Falun Gong practitioners are persecuted even
more severely. Group 3 of Division 2 is the worst. It's called the "back-up
group," which means other divisions pass unfinished work to this group.
Falun Gong practitioners and other detainees held here work day and night to
meet the quota. Two persons monitor each Falun Gong practitioner to prevent the
practitioner from talking to others, as they fear the practitioners would reveal
the truth of the persecution. The labor camp has a strict rule, which states,
"any detainee caught talking to a Falun Gong practitioner is considered to
have severely violated labor camp policies and could be punished with solitary
confinement." Practitioner Guan Longmei renounced Falun Gong while being
held at Division 5, but she later realized guards and collaborators had deceived
her, so she wrote a solemn announcement. The guards hung her in a solitary
confinement cell, and gagged her with socks to prevent her from shouting. She
was later transferred to Group 2 for forced labor. Practitioner Shen Peimin was held in this labor camp between 2001 and 2003
and has since moved to Japan. She was held at Group 1, Division 2. Practitioner
Zhang Ying was sentenced to two-and-a-half years of forced labor in 2001 and was
held at Group 1, Division 2 for two years. She was forced to eat "prison
food" because she could not meet the quota. Any Falun Gong practitioner who
cannot finish the assigned workload receives only 15 Yuan [less than 2 dollars]
each month, so they can only afford to buy the most basic necessities. Even
instant noodles are a luxury. Endless work, constant pressure and malnutrition
stopped women Falun Gong practitioners' menstrual period for one year, and they
also experienced double vision. Division 5 specializes in persecuting Falun Gong. It was moved from the
Division 2's building to the Division 4's building, and later back to the fifth
floor of the Division 2's building. The areas where Falun Gong practitioners are
held are the only places in the labor camp that have the solitary confinement
cells. Each room is equipped with surveillance camera(s). At first, Division 5
was not assigned any work, but the officials made determined practitioners work
until late at night while they let "reformed" practitioners rest
early, participate in activities, read books, speak freely, write letters, eat
meat and vegetables, and use the restrooms. All of the "privileges"
given to collaborators are impossible for determined practitioners
who are handcuffed and locked in solitary confinement cells. They make
collaborators take over the work practitioners cannot finish, so the
collaborators begin to hate the practitioners. Practitioner Yu Peiying, 68 years
old, was sentenced to two years of forced labor and was the oldest detainee at
the labor camp. She was forced to first stand and then sit for long periods of
time until the flesh on her buttocks became ulcerated. She was also made to
work. Labor camp officials tell visitors that "labor camps in Shanghai
emphasize education; work is only used to supplement education." Political
education sessions are indeed conducted at night, but is it really education?
Detainees are forced to work where there are no cameras, and if they fail to
meet the quota, they are punished with heavy manual labor, such as loading and
unloading heavy packages and having to run laps. The Communist Party has never changed its evil nature; it has only changed
its tactics in order to deceive people more effectively. Group heads at the labor camp say to the detainees when the detainees disobey
them, "Well, nobody asked you to come here!" They imply that people
who are sent to labor camps are automatically deprived of all rights, including
the freedom to choose what they think, say and do.
Phone: 86-21-59760645; Fax: 86-21-59760591, 86-21-59760643
Legal representative: Qian Jianming; Head of factory: Qian Jianming
Shanghai ICP No. 05041934
Address: No. 2791 Jizhai Road, Jiwang Town, Minhang District, Shanghai, Zip
code: 201106
Phone: 011-86-21-62960236; Email: jxtoy@163.com
Posting date: 8/4/2007
Original article date: 8/3/2007
Category: Eyewitness Accounts
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/7/14/158851.html