U.S. directory details Chinese forced labor camps

Asian Political News, July 5, 1999

WASHINGTON, June 30 Kyodo A major U.S. business directory on China aimed at Western business officials lists at least 99 forced labor camp enterprises, according to a study released Wednesday by a U.S. nonprofit group.

The Laogai Research Foundation scrutinized publisher Dun and Bradstreet's 1,626- page "Directory of Key Manufacturing Companies in P.R. China 1995/96," which was compiled with data from the Chinese State Statistical Bureau.

The foundation claims to have matched 99 manufacturers listed to the names of some of the 1,070 labor camps it has previously identified, including those where noted Chinese dissidents Wei Jingsheng and Wang Dan were recently held.

Two of the firms were listed under their prison names -- Hebei Reform Through Labor General Team No. 3 and Liaoning Huazi Reform Through Labor and Supervise Branch.

Another 16 have been known to the U.S. Customs Service for years and their products are banned from the U.S. market, according to the foundation.

According to Dun and Bradstreet's data, the 99 "laogai" firms had annual total sales of 842.7 million dollars, figures which only begin to hint at the size of the prison-labor sector of the Chinese economy, the foundation said.

Among the 99 companies the foundation identified was Hebei Nanbao Saltworks, where political dissident Wei was imprisoned, although not as a laborer, before his release in 1997. According to the directory, the saltworks had annual sales of 17.9 million dollars and a net income of 1.7 million dollars.

Wei, who now lives in exile in the United States, told a Washington news conference held by the foundation, "It is hard to provide evidence on the Chinese 'laogai' system, (but) we must be able to see that this is an inhumane practice across China today."

The Chinese government consistently refuses requests from journalists, members of Congress and human rights activists to reveal details on the prison-labor economy whose full extent remains a state secret in China, the foundation said.

A second Dun and Bradstreet directory published last year, which presented a more limited list of Chinese companies, contained the names of 44 "laogai" enterprises. Based on 1995 figures, those camps posted sales of 401.7 million dollars.

The books, published in Chinese and English, did not indicate the extent of the camps' export business.

At the press conference, the foundation's executive director Harry Wu, who spent 19 years in various Chinese forced labor camps, decried what he called Beijing's effort to reap huge profits from prison-labor exports.

"The Chinese government has lied repeatedly about the exportation of forced labor products," Wu said. "The listing of these camps in Dun and Bradstreet shows that 'laogai' industries continue to search for international markets."

The issue is a political hot potato in the U.S. where federal laws ban the import of goods made by forced labor, but enforcement is weak because of China's refusal to identify "laogai" exports and strong lobbying by U.S. businesses for increased investment in China.

Beijing also has signed two memorandums of understanding with Washington agreeing not to export prison-labor products to the U.S.

But investigative reports by various U.S. media often identify U.S. firms that import products of Chinese prison labor.

"If existing bilateral agreements do not work, then the U.S. government needs to find new ways to make sure that products made from the blood, sweat and tears of Chinese prisoners do not enter the U.S. market," Wu said.

He said, "This is a human rights issue, but also a legal issue -- those who are turning a blind eye or wish to pretend that this problem will just go away are failing to implement U.S. law."

However, Wu admitted that it is difficult for U.S. prosecutors to take legal action against U.S. companies that violate the ban on prison-labor products because so much of the evidence is in China and unattainable.