Products Produced in Handan Forced Labour Camp Using Forced Labour

"Sterile" Chopsticks Are Contaminated

Inmates in forced labour camps are often put to work packaging pairs of chopsticks into sealed bags. However, the chopsticks handed out in restaurants are not produced under sterile conditions. Often the packers in the labour camp have dirty hands or runny noses, which will contaminate the chopsticks.

Xiao Dong, who was forced to package chopsticks in the Handan Labour Camp, said, "I will never use the supposedly sterile chopsticks when I am released. During the hot summer when we work, we sweat all over. Some people intentionally scratch themselves with the chopsticks and then put the chopsticks covered with sweat into the bags. One time I caught a cold and had a runny nose. I know I dripped on the chopsticks, which were then packaged. Some inmates wear slippers and insert the chopsticks between their toes before packaging them into the bags."

Counterfeit Japanese Fish hooks for Export

People in Division 2 at Handan Forced Labour Camp make fish hooks and recording machines. Recently they made counterfeit Japanese fish hooks which they then exported. The manufacturer is written as: "All Japanese" and priced at 260 yuan¹. In fact, these "Japanese" fish hooks are made in Chinese Communist Party forced labour camps.

Printing Pirated Books

On December 23rd last year, Division 2 stopped producing fish hooks and reconfigured the workshop. They installed printing equipment and now print pirated books. At present, they mainly print copies of the Xinhua Dictionary. Inmates fold 3,000 copies every day, scratching the board with a primitive bamboo strip, and manually arranging the pages. The marks are uneven, so the inmates are beaten and berated. Because the task can't be finished, they are kicked. A so-called law enforcement facility has become a printing company that produces pirated books.

The box the dictionary is packed in states: "Commercial Press, 36 Wangfujing Ave, Beijing. The telephone for the Department of Publishing is 65253913." (This batch of books will be transported out possibly in two weeks. Next month, they will print teaching assistant materials.)

The company that collaborates with the labour camp to print pirated books is Yongnian Printing Company. The license number of the vehicle that transports paper into the labour camp is "Hebei DE 8079f." The address of Yongnian Printing Company is BeizhongBao Village, Yaozhai Town, Yongnian County, and the company's legal representative is Cao Shouhua. Besides Xinhua Dicitionary, the Oxford English-Chinese Dictionary and all kinds teaching assistant books for elementary and middle schools are being printed.

Bloody Persecution under the Guise of "Civilized Law Enforcement"

Before the 2008 Olympic Games, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) clamoured to show that it was "the best period of Chinese human rights in history." By using the ideals of "security and protection" as an excuse, the CCP arrested and sentenced to forced labour Christians, Falun Gong practitioners, and other innocent people simply for exercising their right to appeal to the higher authorities. Here is an account of the Handan Forced Labour Camp's behind-the-scenes plotting.

There are currently five divisions in the camp: Initiation Division (about 30 inmates now), Special Division (about 50 inmates), Division One (68 inmates), Division Two (67 inmates), and Xingzhi Division (i.e. kitchen personnel, 20 people). Those in each division who get brutally beaten must still perform arduous duties. The Initiation Division mainly packages chopsticks. Division One puts seams in balls. Division Two mainly ties fish hooks and makes wreaths. Most inmates can't complete the high quota the division chief stipulates, so he then beats them. He beats them with a stick, kicks them, hits their heads against the wall, and/or punches them in the face.

At the beginning of "security and protection," prisoners were not allowed to have visitors between June and September. Beginning in October visits were allowed. The fifth and fifteenth of each month are the visiting days for the general inmate population, and the tenth is for "special re educated people" (Falun Gong). On October 9th, Mr. Hou Xichen's family member delivered a ten-yuan ham and left it with the main gate sentry, but it was stolen from him. When he reported it to the administrative office, nothing was done and the administrator said, "You will not find it because a dog stole it and ate it." In order to get the most out of the Falun Gong practitioners, there is a store inside the labour camp. Prices are double what one would pay on the outside, and the goods there are mostly counterfeit brands. Therefore, the food and daily necessities (detergent powder and liquid, eggs, meat, and so on) brought in by family members are called "forbidden articles."

The meals are also used to extort money from practitioners. Since many find the food inedible or not nutritious, they buy food, which is ridiculously expensive. One egg is one yuan, a cake (three pieces) is two yuan. The 137th Document of Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Finance (1995) stipulates that 110 yuan per month be allocated to "board" each labour camp inmate. This board is to include 25 kilograms of grain, 30 kilograms of vegetables, 1.5 kilograms of meat, 1.5 kilograms of cooking oil, eggs, fish, and 2 kilograms of bean product. Actually, each person gets less than 2.5 kilograms of vegetables and less than 0.1 kilogram of meat per month, all of which costs less than 50 yuan. So where is all of the practitioners' money for board going?

This article mainly focuses on reporting the inhuman torture of Falun Gong practitioners by the "special education team," which is also called the "special discipline team." This team mainly tortures practitioners from Handan City, Yingtai City, Hengshui City, and Cangzhou City. The captain is Ge Qingxi, the political instructor is Wang Zhiming, and the guards are Gao Fei and Zuo Tao. They brutally beat practitioners to try to coerce them to write the guarantee statement and the three statements to renounce Falun Gong. They use non-practitioner inmates, including thieves and gangsters, to monitor and control practitioners. Practitioners are not allowed to speak with each other or walk around without permission. They have to ask for permission to use the restroom. When practitioners are using the toilet they cannot be accompanied by inmates from outside the special education team.

The monitoring inmates often curse at and beat practitioners. Some of these inmates go out of their way to torture practitioners. Among them, You Yufang, Gao Jinzhu, Zhen Xinchao, and Zhang Yuchen, together with guard Gao Fei, intentionally twist the teachings of Falun Gong and publicly curse Falun Gong and Teacher Li Hongzhi. You Yufang often makes suggestions to the management on how to harass practitioners and beat practitioners. He pretends to be kind in front of the guards but reveals his ferocious side in dealing with practitioners. Many of the methods used to torture practitioners have come from You Yufang's suggestions to guard Ge Qingxi. On the evening of September 6th, 2008, practitioner Ms. Sun Lixiang (64 years old, retired) from Hengshuigucheng City refused to write the three statements. Because of this, Ge Qingxi and You Yufang took her to the fifth floor and beat her with batons for an hour. When she returned, her back was all black and blue.

Around 6 o'clock in the evening on September 19th, 2008, guards Ge Qingxi and Wang Zhiming got inmates You Yufang and Liu Shiqiang and took practitioner Mr. Li Wanqing from Wuqiao City to the fifth floor. Because Mr. Li refused to write the three statements, Ge, Liu and Wang beat him with batons on the legs, back, and ribs from 6 p.m. until after midnight. During the beating, Mr. Li passed out several times. Ge Qingxi panicked, but You Yufang said, "Don't worry. I can revive him and make him write those statements."

Practitioners Mr. Li Qiusheng and Mr. Xu Kai have been detained in the labour camp for nine months. Because they refused to write the three statements, they were forced to stand for five months. Just prior to the campaign to "tighten security in preparation for the Olympics," Ge Qingxi got inmates Liu Lei and Liu Shiqiang and together they used four electric batons to shock Mr. Li Qiusheng until the batons ran out of power. Then they forced Mr. Li to sit on the floor with his legs straight and they stomped on his legs. When they stomped on his knee, he passed out in pain. Mr. Xu Kai was beaten until his buttocks became black and he could not sit or lie down due to the severe pain.

On December 16th, several practitioners collectively announced that they were declaring null and void the "three statements" that they had signed under coercion. Sun Lixiang turned in the declaration and was then beaten by Wang Zhiming and Zuo Tao.

The authors of this article appeal to all people with a sense of justice and conscience to pay attention to the unprecedented persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China. Please pay attention to the severe situation and suffering of practitioners detained at the Handan City Forced Labour Camp.

Complaints and Allegations by Non-practitioner Inmates

Below is an open letter from several non-practitioner inmates of the Handan City Forced Labour Camp to the director of Hebei Provincial Law Enforcement Department.

Dear Director,

Greetings. Under your management and direction, inhumane crimes are happening at the Handan City Forced Labour Camp. Please listen to our complaints, which are backed up by our tears and blood.

1. Bribery is commonplace. The captains take advantage of the labour camp's entrance education class and policy of term reductions to solicit bribes. Captains Cai and Wang of the entrance team took a lot of bribes in the form of money, mobile phones, and laptop computers. Captain Xue Peijun of the second team abused the power of his post and took a bribe of tens of thousands of yuan. He set up his own clandestine court and instigated the sub-team captain to beat and berate inmates.

2. Abuse of power. The captains have low morals. Xue Peijun, captain of the second team, uses profanity and degrading language all the time. He does not care at all about the brutal torture happening in his team. Many inmates have been beaten and injured to the point where they attempted suicide by swallowing fish hooks or by cutting their wrists. As long as the perpetrators who beat and torture others submit bribes to the captain, they do not face charges. Instead, the victims' terms are extended. It's so absurd.

3. Work shifts are extended beyond human endurance. In 2008 alone, the work schedule for inmates making fish hooks was usually extended until 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning. If the quota for the day is not met, inmates are slapped on the side of the head, causing punctured eardrums, beaten with wooden sticks, punched and kicked, shocked on the genitals with electric batons (captain Zuo Tao of the special education team often tortures inmates this way), kicked in the genitals, and beaten until their ribs are broken. The captain often protects the perpetrator and verbally abuses the inmates for not completing the work quota.

4. According to the Law Enforcement Ministry and the Treasury Ministry's No. 137 document (published in 1995), forced labour camp detainees should be alloted a monthly board expense of 110 yuan. However, in the Handan City Forced Labour Camp, the cost of our food amounts to less than 50 yuan per month. We are fed steamed buns all year round, with six buns per weekday and only four buns on weekends. In the summer, we have squash soup that has way too much salt. In the winter, we have cabbage soup that is way too spicy. That is all we are fed. There are no vegetables in either breakfast or dinner. It is rare to get meat more than once or twice a month. The soup has only a few green leaves floating on top of water. We are starved here. We can buy extra food, but an egg costs one yuan, three small pancakes cost two yuan, and a pack of instant noodles costs one yuan, while the prices outside the camp are about half that. This past winter, many inmates became sick and had constipation and blood in their stool. Even with such poor nutrition, we are still forced to do heavy manual labour all year long, including on Sundays, without a break. We heard that for the Chinese New Year we will only be allowed a one-day break on New Year's Day because the camp authorities are trying to meet a quota of pirating the New Chinese Dictionary and the Oxford English-Chinese Dictionary. The second team's captain Xue Peijun once shouted, "Let them resume work on New Year's Day."

5. Families are not allowed to send in food. Because the store inside the camp wants to make money from inmates, our families are not allowed to send in food. The prices here are double what they would be on the outside and are usually faked brand names. Even if some families can manage to send some food in, it usually gets lost somewhere in the process.

The food is poor, the workload is heavy, the mental pressure is high, and beatings are commonplace. Even in the winter, we have to eat our meals outside because all of the space inside of the building has been allocated for workshops. Due to the international financial crisis, the Yongnian County Printing Company has gone bankrupt and is working with the labour camp authorities to pirate books.

We are living in hell here in the labour camp, and we are treated like pigs and dogs.

Today, we, the inmates suffering in this forced labour camp, appeal with sincere hearts to government officials at all levels to heed our suffering. We hope to raise awareness about our situation and to have our rights as human beings protected under the rule of the law. Please help us.

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/2009/1/29/194411.html