Exposing the Corrupt Behaviour of Labour Camp Official Zhang Bo in Qianjin Forced Labour Camp in Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province

Zhang Bo (female), former head of No. 7 Division in the Wanjia Forced Labour Camp, was transferred to the Harbin Qianjin Forced Labour Camp as head of the No. 1 Division on January 25th, 2007. For power and money, Zhang Bo unscrupulously deceives her superiors and deludes subordinates to obtain the trust of upper level leaders and to extort benefits from inmates. Her main tactics are to extend working hours, increase workloads and falsify accounting statements to make profits. In addition to her wages, her extra income in 2006 alone amounted to several hundred thousand yuan¹.

At the time there were 50 or 60 inmates in the No. 7 Division at the Harbin Wanjia Forced Labour Camp. The inmates had to continue working daily for the No. 7 Division after finishing work in the Wanjia Shoe Factory for six hours. The additional tasks were packing farm chemicals for Shengqi'ao, wrapping shoe insoles, making popsicle sticks, and selecting toothpicks. The farm chemicals were extremely toxic and dispersed plumes of smoky dust. Even when wearing rubber gloves and face-masks, any uncovered area of the face or hands would peel and crack. An 18-year-old woman from Xinjiang Province suffered from coughing and fever from the dust of the farm chemical. She had to pay the medical bills for her treatment. It was unthinkable that this lime-like farm chemical containing certain other chemical ingredients for killing lice, cockroaches, and flies was stored together with toothpicks and popsicle sticks.

When questioned about this, Zhang Bo openly boasted that making money was the only goal, and nothing else mattered.

Most of the inmates who were assigned to sort toothpicks were over 50, and their eyesight was not good. When the manufacturer returned some finished boxes to be redone, Zhang Bo instructed people to merely resort the surface layer, as redoing all of them would reduce profits.

The workload in the No. 7 Division was heavy, and the working hours were long about 14 to 20 hours per day. Regardless of their health, every inmate around 50 to 60 years old was required to finish three boxes of toothpicks and make five to six hundred popsicle sticks. If the work quota was not met, the inmate would be punished in ways which included being deprived of sleep, lowering of performance scores, cancellation of term deductions, or even being detained in confinement or sent to a so-called "education" class. The relevant guards would also be subject to deductions in their bonuses. The inmates in the No. 7 Division were allowed so little sleep that they would close their eyes even on the exercise field.

In May or June, the work was to select toothpicks. Those who were young and had good eyesight were able to finish one-and-a half to two bags of toothpicks, but Zhang Bo demanded that every inmate finish three bags.

Zhang Bo had the final word in matters of the No. 7 Division, but she would lie without feeling any shame. She faked kindness in front of people every day and often said, "How much I care for you! You are my relatives and friends. I am welcome in every family I visit."

As an example of how she really cared for everyone, however, in addition to extending work hours for profit, she demanded that everyone pay her one or two yuan out of every three yuan earned, as a "class fee." In January 2003, instead of distributing the monthly bonus, Zhang Bo merely bought a pair of red socks for everyone, which cost less than two yuan per pair. She tried to make people think she was a good person and called it a gift of "good luck." Everyone had to accept the "gift," otherwise it meant that you did not respect her.

A medical diagnosis at the Wanjia Hospital and Harbin University Hospital found that Cheng Zuwei had a breast tumour, necessitating a hospital stay. The team head who is in charge of inmate living conditions was supposed to take her to the hospital, and she was not busy at the time. Zhang Bo, however, did not want to lose the opportunity to show herself off, so she didn't allow her to go. Instead, she waited 20 days until she was free and took Cheng Zuwei to the hospital herself. If the tumour was malignant, waiting this long would miss the optimum treatment time and could have been life-threatening.

Most viciously, Zhang Bo had for several years incited guards and criminal inmates to brutally torture Falun Gong practitioners. This woman was directly responsible for all incidents of persecution against the practitioners who died, became disabled, or were brainwashed in the No. 7 Division. She called it "completing the task assigned by the CCP organisation."

Zhang Bo loved to show off. She made the decisions for everything in the No. 7 Division and made sure everything was done to her satisfaction to please her supervisors. But sometimes she disgraced herself. When the selections of toothpicks did not meet the sellers' qualifications and needed to be redone, Zhang Bo instructed people not to redo everything but just adjust the surface layer. She claimed that the manufacturer didn't want the unqualified toothpicks to exceed 25 per cent of the total batch, since it would waste too much. However, when the manufacturer's manager, named Hu, came to the labour camp to inspect the progress, her lie was exposed. On January 25th, 2007, Zhang Bo instructed police to sell the toothpick boxes to recycling stations to make a profit, and at the same time she lied to the manufacturer, saying that the boxes were decayed. When the boxes were being loaded, a manufacturer's agent named Yu discovered this fact. He scolded Zhang Bo in front of the labour camp head and said that this represented poor work quality.

In September 2006, the Judiciary Bureau was going to hold a contest on military-style drills. Zhang Bo wanted to use practitioners to gain personal recognition. She assigned a woman practitioner to do the training. During a preview, she openly announced that the formation was made up of all Falun Gong practitioners. The truth was that half of the people in the formation were criminal inmates. The performance was rejected, and she didn't achieve what she wanted because of her despicable conduct. On February 12th, 2007, when the head of the municipal Judiciary Bureau came to inspect the Qianjin Forced Labour Camp, Zhang Bo reported that all 45 inmates in the division were Falun Gong practitioners. The truth is that 19 of them were not. Her lies even embarrassed her colleagues.

Zhang Bo's corruption, fuelled by delusion and lies, sometimes involved huge amounts of money. Here are some examples. According to the production log for popsicle sticks from May 1st-14th, 2006, it listed that 877 boxes of the sticks were made 300 boxes made by inmates in the No. 1 Class, 267 by the No. 2 Class, and 310 by the No. 3 Class. The manufacturer paid five yuan per box, but in the account ledger Zhang Bo wrote 3.5 yuan per box. She pocketed the difference herself, which was 1,315.50 yuan. According to the production log for making paper rice bags between December 10th-20th, 2006, a total of 142,348 bags were processed. The manufacturer paid 2.5 cents per bag, but accounting her ledger entry it was 2 cents per bag. Zhang Bo pocketed the difference of 711.74 yuan. As seen from the above examples, Zhang Bo illegally took 1,315.50 yuan from one job and 711.74 yuan from the second. In fact, several jobs were in progress at the same time, such as making popsicle sticks, making shoes, selecting corn seeds, selecting toothpicks, and others. Zhang Bo made several hundred yuan per day from all these. It is no exaggeration to say that Zhang Bo skimmed off several hundred thousand yuan of dishonest additional income besides her salary.

This woman was greedy and ruthless in collecting money. For example, good seeds are a critical part of a farmer's annual income. Zhang Bo prevented careful seed selection. She ignored her conscience in favour of money.

Note

1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2007/3/27/151649.html