Falun Dafa Minghui.org www.minghui.org PRINT

Prisons and Forced Labor Camps in Shanghai Trample Human Rights and Violate WTO Principles (Photo)

June 23, 2007

(Clearwisdom.net) Prisons and forced labor camps in Shanghai trample human rights and violate world trade principles. They produce large quantities of products made in labor camps for export to Europe and America, disrupting international trade markets. Prisoners are the cheapest labor in the world, and every day in China, they are forced to engage in grueling labor for long hours, while being lashed by prison guards with electric batons and leather belts. Illegally detained Falun Gong practitioners are also forced to participate. This is a serious violation of World Trade Organization (WTO) regulations.

This is a photo of the internal newspaper of the Shanghai Prison Administration and Bureau of Reform through Labor, named "Da Qiang Nei Wai" (Inside and Outside the Big Wall). According to the newspaper, Division 4 of the Shanghai Tilanqiao Prison was the first production division established in the prison, and currently has the capacity of producing 400,000 garments per annum and is equipped with advanced imported equipment. In 2003, its output value amounted to over 5.2 million yuan, with a net profit of over 3.6 million yuan; by 2005, the output value increased to 5.8 million yuan, with a net profit of over 4.8 million yuan.

Many Falun Gong practitioners are detained in the Shanghai Tilanqiao Prison, the Shanghai Women's Prison, the Shanghai Qingpu No. 3 Labor Camp and the Qingpu Women's Labor Camp. Under high pressure and instructions from the Chinese Communist dictatorship, the prison guards have inflicted extensive ill treatment and torture on Falun Gong practitioners. Division 4 of Shanghai Tilanqiao Prison is makes garments for export behind high walls fitted with electric wires, under the name "Shenjiang Garment Factory." This prison garment factory is rather big, producing a wide variety of products, including various kinds of knitted wear and non-woven goods, cotton T-shirts, shirts and undergarments. Many exporters actually visit the prison to place their orders.

Many Falun Gong practitioners refused to submit to the persecution by the evil Chinese Communist Party (CCP), pointing out that practitioners have committed no crimes, and refuse to participate in so-called "reform through labor." Some said they would reveal the CCP's crimes to the WTO. Because of this, the prison guards used all kinds of torture in attempts to force them to give in.

The prison guards locked each Falun Gong practitioner in a small cage, 3.3 square meters in size and tortured them with a specially made narrow stool, which is 20 cm in length, 5 cm in width and 20 cm in height. Sitting on such a tiny stool is no different than sitting on a short stick. The prison guards forced the practitioners to sit on the stools from 5:30 a.m. until 8:00 p.m., a total of 15 hours a day. If the practitioners refused to "confess," they would be forced to suffer such torture year in and year out. While they were forced to sit on the stools, they were also forced to face the wall, with their eyes wide open staring at the white wall all day long, and at the same time they had to have their hands behind their backs. If they failed to follow these demands, they would be subjected to even more ill treatment, including beating and verbal abuses, by the inmates who were specially chosen by the guards to monitor Falun Gong practitioners.

Many Falun Gong practitioners started a hunger strike as a form of protest against the persecution and torture. Among them, Ju Yanlai has been on hunger strike for nearly five years. The prison guards dragged him up and down the concrete stairs until Ju Yanlai's legs were dripping with blood and bones protruded through the flesh where it was torn away from rubbing against the rough concrete stairs. The wounds were simply too horrible to look at. Practitioner Zhou Bin was brutally kicked on his lower body by inmates under the instigation of the guards. They stomped on him, causing severe injuries to his genitals and joints. Many other practitioners, including Xiong Wenqi and Du Yan, were tied to a specially made wooden torture bed for force-feeding for a long period of time, which caused heavy bleeding from the esophagus. The muscles in their limbs atrophied due to being tied to this bed for a long time. Practitioner Zhang Yiming was once forced to put a chamberpot on top of his head. The inmates also forced his head into the chamberpot and did not allow him to sleep. Some practitioners were not even allowed to sit down and were forced to squat all day long as a form of torture.

The Shanghai Women's Prison is specialized in processing plush toys and knitwear; manufacturers include Shanghai Haixin Toys Co. Ltd and CE Toy Ltd. The Songjiang Women's Prison is even more cruel and wicked in torturing Falun Gong practitioners. The practitioners are subjected to daily ridicule and verbal abuse. The inmate monitors deprive practitioners of sleep with the excuse that they need to adhere to prison regulations. They shocked Yang Manye with electric batons for a long period of time because she copied Falun Gong articles. Later, Yang Manye fell down due to exhaustion and suffered a compound bone fracture. She was sent to a hospital for an operation. The prison guards cooked up excuses and extended her terms by nine months. Currently, she is detained in the Shanghai Women's Prison the second time. It is said that when Yang Manye was detained in the Second Division, the deputy leader Wang Ming and team leader Xu Hong put Yang Manye's arms behind her back and hung her up in the air with leather belts. They later held her in confinement. Practitioner Shen Zhuoying was not allowed to leave her cell during the four years of her confinement. No matter how hot the weather was, she was never allowed to take a shower. As a result she developed skin infections. She continued to suffer until her release.

Falun Gong practitioner Dai Zhiying openly said "Dafa is righteous" at an assembly after she saw through the plot by the guards to "reform" her. She was locked in a small confined cell of less than three square meters in the summer heat of 38 degrees Celsius. She was not allowed to take a shower and had to eat, use the toilet and sleep in that cell. In order to reduce her influence on the people in the division, they transferred her out of the "strictly controlled division" to another place where they forced her to do heavy slave labor all along and tried to force her to give up her cultivation practice.

Each division in the Shanghai Women's Prison has its own business network, and therefore the prison produces a variety of goods, including plush toys, shirts, shoes, and electronic products. Manufacturers include Shanghai Sanqiang Knitwear Ltd, Shanghai Dafuni Shoe Manufacture Ltd, Shanghai Yousheng Toy Ltd, Wujiang No. 1 Electric Device Company and Shanghai Qiaqia Food Ltd.

Falun Gong practitioner Fan Guoping was pierced with awls by inmates who monitored him under the instructions of the guards in the Third Division because he did not plead guilty and refused to obey the guards and the inmates. He was chained to a bed in a spread eagle position. Practitioner Zhang Ying was hung up in the air with her hands behind her back by the leader of the First Division because she refused to plead guilty and refused to participate in the reform through forced labor and to join any prison activities. She was then transferred to the "strictly controlled division" and was forced to stand with her face to the wall and locked in a confined cell. After she was transferred to the Second Division, division leader Wang Hanqing and team leader Shen Qiaohong hung her up in the air with leather belts for six days, because she refused to follow the prison regulations. The second time they unlawfully detained her, she suffered from a heart condition and hypertension due to being on hunger strike. Later when she discovered that an unknown white drug was put in her food by the prison canteen, she ate very little, which led to heart failure. She suffered from constant cramps and was too weak to walk. Practitioner Cheng Wenying was often hung up or put in confinement for not obeying the prison guards. As a result, she developed a mental disorder due to long time physical and mental torment. Practitioner Liao Xiaomin was forced to stand for long periods of time for refusing to be reformed through labor. She was deprived of sleep and suffered from incontinence and confusion. Practitioner Li Jinyu was forced to stand every day for refusing to participate in slave labor, until she suffered a relapse of hypertension. The second time she was unlawfully detained, they put some unknown toxic drug in her food.

The Shanghai No. 3 Labor Camp is even more savage. They transferred all Falun Gong practitioners who had refused to obey orders to the Qingpu Hospital, where inmate Si Guanlong and others, under the instructions of the guards, tortured the practitioners with a new form of Tiger Bench. Practitioner Lu Xingguo was beaten to death within one hour. Practitioner Guo Mianfu was shocked by inmates with five electric batons until he became incontinent. The tortures the practitioners suffered are too numerous to cover.

The CCP is an evil Party that has always engaged in violence. It is most skillful in cover-up tactics, deception and telling lies in dealing with kind-hearted people in the world. In terms of human rights, the CCP shamelessly tells the world that "China's achievements attract world attention." In trade, the CCP misleads countries in Europe and America that "there is no other country like China in the world that can provide and export cheap quality goods with fast delivery; that countries in Europe and America should be patient with China, and they should not confront China, should not adopt a policy of trade protectionism and should absolutely not politicize trade." In fact in terms of human rights, very few countries in the world truly believe the lies of the CCP. In trade however, although the CCP admits that "cheap labor is the key factor in ensuring the competitive power of China's export goods," various countries around the world that engage in large amounts of foreign trade with China could never have imagined that the CCP regime is using large numbers of zero cost prisoners and detainees in labor camps to produce large quantities of super low cost products to compete in the world market.

The processing factories in prisons and labor camps in China are out and out "blood and sweat factories" and prisoners are free labor who have no unions, no rights and no freedom. There was once an incident that happened in a prison. One prisoner lost his ID card (with the prison's name, the prisoner's name and number on it) in the garment package for export to the US. The guards immediately ordered all prisoners to stop their work and to unpack every package to look for the ID card. They were very anxious and shouted, "If you don't find the card and it gets to America, and if the Americans find it, it will have an international impact and sabotage our country's international strategy. If this happens you will be fully responsible for all consequences. You must find it today; otherwise no one is allowed to sleep!" From this incident one can see that behind the CCP's smiling diplomacy, there is a huge, hidden scheme. All the so-called strategic economic policies and trading partners are in fact part of the CCP's "global deception strategy," which not only disrupts global trade and finance markets, but also sends large quantities of toxic food and other toxic products to developed countries, causing damage to the people in those countries.