A 21st-Century Evil: Prison Slaves
Largely filmed inside China, this film also included an extensive interview with Harry Wu and much of the footage of the Laogai that he filmed when he went undercover in the 1990s. This exposé details how China forces its 3-5 million prisoners to perform hard labor in unsafe conditions, while exporting the products they make to the international market. The film aroused strong reactions in the international community, once again making the Laogai - the darkest corner of human rights abuse in China - a focus of attention. You can watch the film online here!
The 62-year policy of "reform through labor" is no secret within China, but Beijing still denies to the world that it sponsors and profits from these camps and their illegal business deals - even after being caught red-handed in documentaries such as this. In its anger and embarrassment, the Chinese government decided to retaliate against Al-Jazeera, even though Ms. Chan was not involved in the filming or production of the Prison Slaves documentary.
Harry Wu, the LRF and Political Prisoners.eu strongly protest the Chinese government’s attempts to cover up the evil of its labor camps, and call upon it to earnestly respect the international media's right to investigate and report the truth.
China last expelled foreign journalists in 1998. Fourteen years later, the regime's retreat to old tactics demonstrates the incorrigible nature of the Chinese Communist Party. Its expulsion of Al-Jazeera's correspondent shows that protecting the global secrecy about the Laogai is still a core interest for the regime. In order to protect its image and reassure its trading partners, China technically banned the export of Laogai products in 1991, but the leadership is well-aware that this has only made prison enterprises subtler and craftier, dumping their goods into international markets by selling through middlemen and using legitimate-sounding “front” business names.
Although U.S. law has clearly prohibited the importation of goods produced by convict, forced or indentured labor since 1930, the importation of Laogai products to the E.U. is generally legal. In May 2007, the German Bundestag passed a resolution calling on the Federal Government to request that the PRC "release information about the Laogai system" and the "goods produced in the Laogai" and move against the distribution of products originating in Laogai camps." The Italian parliament passed 3 resolutions in October 2007 condemning the inhuman treatment of Laogai prisoners, and an additional one in July 2008. Yet today, there is no question that Chinese prison labor camps are producing more goods for Western consumption than ever, evidenced by the English-language labels that released Laogai prisoners report attaching to the products.
Forced labor is a serious violation of human rights, and China has implicated the European governments and European consumers in this egregious crime. All E.U. member countries should pass similar resolutions at the local and federal levels. Moreover, the European Union should pass legislation condemning the Laogai and banning the importation of Laogai products. It is the responsibility of the European governments to protect corporations and consumers by ensuring that they do not become complicit in the degradation of the 3-5 million slaves behind Chinese barbed wire, laboring under threat of physical and mental abuse as Harry Wu did for 19 years.