Plush Toys “Made in China” by Falun Gong Practitioners in Forced Labour Camps

Giraffes, dogs, cows, and horses of different sizes are among the plush toys and ornaments being ordered, processed, and exported overseas in large quantities. These plush toys are handmade by inmates and detained Falun Gong practitioners at the Jinan First Women's Forced Labour Camp located on Jiangshuiquan Road, Jinan City, Shandong Province. The forced labour has been going on for more then ten years, ever since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started persecuting Falun Gong and detaining Falun Gong practitioners. The labour camp colludes with the 610 Offices (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) in Shandong Province to arrest and detain practitioners to work at the labour camps.

Each year for the past ten plus years, Jinan First Women's Forced Labour Camp has taken large orders to process plush toys. Vendors deliver bundles of cloth, wire support frames, and compact blocks of cotton stuffing in large trucks. The compact blocks of cotton are turned into fluffy cotton fibrefill and stuffed into dozens of large bags. These bags are carried up or down the stairs (a total of four stories) during mealtime. There are more than a dozen electric sewing machines in each workshop. After the fabric and materials are cut in the first step, they are sewn and stuffed with cotton and processed into finished products by women in their 50s and 60s. Each one is given a daily quota and has to work very hard to meet that quota. Overtime work at night is very common when production numbers are not met. To save time and to increase production, detainees are allowed very little water so as to reduce their trips to the toilet.

In order to produce more, the guards do not even allow detainees to wash their hands after using the toilet. They are rarely allowed to take a bath, resulting in poor hygiene. Thus the toys that they handle and produce, while looking cute and attractive on the surface, actually carry germs. Made under these conditions, whoever buys these products (which are sold in China and overseas) is at risk of contracting disease.

The workshop areas are covered with fibres that are used to make hair for the plush toys. The hairs stick to workers' hands when the fabric for the toys is cut. Over time, hairs get all over their bodies, and even the air is filled with hair. When the workers walk by, the plush fibres fall off of them like snow. The hairs fill the air and stick to the workers' eyelids. Since they are not allowed to bathe, even their beds and quilts are covered with hair. The workers end up resembling plush humans! No matter how many times the rooms are cleaned, there are always long fibres to be found. The labour camp specifically assigned one 60-year-old woman to sweep every day, trying to clean the rooms.

The labour camp accepts large numbers of orders. For example, truckloads of small pillboxes were brought in to have laser anti-counterfeit labels put on. Younger detainees unload the boxes and arrange them in order. They carry each box up the stairs. Then they open the boxes and put the labels on each pillbox by layer and row. After a box is done, they have to put the pillboxes back in the same way before the box was opened. Each detainee is given a quota to meet and they are forced to compete against each other to meet the quota. If the quota is not met, they have to work overtime and carry the boxes back to their rooms to work on them. They have to continue working on them after they get up in the morning.
When they go downstairs to eat or go upstairs after eating, they have to carry the boxes with them. Time is very tight, and it is hard for them to catch their breath. Some people vomit everything they have just eaten when forced to carry the boxes upstairs immediately after eating. When forced to carry something heavy for a long distance right after a meal, the heart feels like it is jumping out of the chest. However, no one dares to voice any complaint. Everyone has to work hard. Otherwise, they are reported and suffer further abuse, intimidation, term extension, and discrimination.

Detainees are also forced to weave bundles of green cloth strips used in interior decorations and bundle little ziplock bags used in hospitals to hold 4 things: a small bottle of alcohol, a small paper bag of cotton balls, a small plastic tube, and a piece of hard blue plastic. Every day they have to work fast and for a long time. After only one or two days, the workers' thumbs and index fingers become numb and swollen at night from unzipping more than three thousand bags. During the day it is so painful that they have difficulty opening a bag again. But they still have to continue working at top speed. More than two thousand of these bags of four items fill a large box. Then the box is closed and a quality check label is put on and the box is carried downstairs. After a few trips up and down the stairs, the workers' clothing is soaked with sweat, even in the winter. After loading and unloading a few times each day, their clothing gets wet with sweat, then dries, and then gets wet again. During the day, no one is allowed to change her clothes. Only ten minutes are allowed in the morning and evening for washing and brushing their teeth. Each day the workers are only allowed to use the toilet twice. Some of them cry due to the physical pain from restricted toilet use.

The workers also have to assemble student books. After the book covers are put on, a small booklet is stuffed behind the cover. Other work includes folding drug instructions into booklets, putting a transparent plastic film on food and confectionary boxes, folding government office file bags into finished products, etc. Another type of forced labour, making the gold-coloured wired tags for “Pecan Oil,” requires cutting bundles of thin gold cords into smaller pieces of equal size and punching holes through stacks of small label cards. Each tag is fastened with the small cord and there are strict requirements on the length, size, and tightness of the fastening. After making enough gold-coloured cord fasteners, the workers' fingers become rough and stiff like wood. Detainees are also forced to make “Happiness” word couplets for banks for New Year celebrations, in addition to general folding, bagging, and other labour.

In order to make more profit, the labour camp treats detainees inhumanely, especially Falun Gong practitioners. People outside of the labour camp have sent letters to the Bureau of Forced Labour, Provincial People's Congress, Women's Federations, and other organizations to report the excessive forced labour abuse of detainees. Occasionally these departments came down to “check,” but they call the labour camp beforehand to notify them of their visit. This allows the labour camp to be well-prepared and to immediately stop the work. The detainees are even told to lay down on their beds, as though they are taking a break. These “checks” are just a formality.

In 2010, a large enclosed vehicle was often used to transport materials into the labour camp and move finished products out of it. The licence plate number is LuC82650. Most of the toys made for export have been transported using this vehicle. It is known that most products were made for a business woman in Zibo named Bai. These toys are sold abroad and labelled as though they were manufactured in Bai's factory.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2012/2/21/253316.html