China's prison slaves: A 21st century evil!!

[JAISWAL]

China is the world's factory, but does a dark secret lurk behind this apparent success story?

Once an isolationist communist state, over the last 20 years China has become the world's biggest exporter of consumer goods. But behind this apparent success story is a dark secret - millions of men and women locked up in prisons and forced into intensive manual labour.

China has the biggest penal colony in the world - a top secret network of more than 1,000 slave labour prisons and camps known collectively as "The Laogai". And the use of the inmates of these prisons - in what some experts call "state sponsored slavery" - has been credited with contributing to the country's economic boom.


In this episode, former inmates, many of whom were imprisoned for political or religious dissidence without trial, recount their daily struggles and suffering in the "dark and bitter" factories where sleep was a privilege.

Charles Lee spent three years imprisoned for religious dissidence. He says: "For a year they tried to brainwash me, trying to force me to give up my practice of Falun Gong. They figured me out ... so they changed their strategy to force me to feel like a criminal ... because, according to their theory, a prisoner should be reformed through labour .... So they forced me to do slave labour."

Prison slaves - Slavery: A 21st Century Evil - Al Jazeera English
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Slavery: A 21st Century Evil - Prison slaves - YouTube

 

[The Messiah]

what vile scum this country is.

 

[tony4562]

Harry Wu is not eaxctly a source to get objective opinion on China or her government. It's like asking the taliban to lecture on the treatment of muslims in India.

 

[The Messiah]

Harry Wu is not eaxctly a source to get subjective opinion on China or her government. It's like asking the taliban to lecture on the treatment of muslims in India.

Every post of yours has muslim in it. Either your a deranged paki or exponentially misinformed.

 

[W.G.Ewald]

...exponentially misinformed.

I am stealing that term.

 

[W.G.Ewald]

what vile scum this country is.

What Do Prisoners Make for Victoria's Secret? | Mother Jones

 

[mylegend]

As much as you may dislike forced labor of inmate

The system may have some innocent inmate, however, most are not. The fact that there is innocent prisoner is sad, but the corrupted court system is the one to be blame. Yet, the idea of commercialization of Prison is not a bad idea. In California, it cost over $20,000 to house a inmate.

In China, local government pay almost nothing to maintain the prison system. The relief in financial burden is the main cause of commercialization of inmate, most Chinese local government are heavily in debt due to "historic reason" and early invest to infrastructure, many spend over 20% of revenue to pay back their debt and interest every year, a humane prison will destroy local government financially.

Anyway, regardless of financial impulse for local government to commercialized every local prison. Prisoner committed crime to the society, and they should not be eating hamburger, workout, and watching TV to compensate their crime. They should do something beneficial for the society, and that is work. Furthermore, it is better to teach a thief how to work before he get out of prison and committing the same crime again.

Just for your knowledge, company actually contract with prison, prison get the major cut of usually 800 rmb, and the prison give 20% of it to the prisoner. The money is little, but better than nothing. However, their productivity remain low due to low incentive, but again, that is better than nothing. My family's firm want to buy some cement for a building project, and only find out the best offer is from the biggest prison in Guangxi province. We found out that actually, that prison is the top 5 cement factory in Guangxi. Well, it is only economy, a average labor cost about 2000-3000 rmb in Guangdong province, and company only need to pay prison labor for 800rmb, that is a good deal. It make economic sense.

 

[trackwhack]

The system may have some innocent inmate, however, most are not. The fact that there is innocent prisoner is sad, but the corrupted court system is the one to be blame. Yet, the idea of commercialization of Prison is not a bad idea. In California, it cost over $20,000 to house a inmate.

In China, local government pay almost nothing to maintain the prison system. The relief in financial burden is the main cause of commercialization of inmate, most Chinese local government are heavily in debt due to "historic reason" and early invest to infrastructure, many spend over 20% of revenue to pay back their debt and interest every year, a humane prison will destroy local government financially.

Anyway, regardless of financial impulse for local government to commercialized every local prison. Prisoner committed crime to the society, and they should not be eating hamburger, workout, and watching TV to compensate their crime. They should do something beneficial for the society, and that is work. Furthermore, it is better to teach a thief how to work before he get out of prison and committing the same crime again.

Just for your knowledge, company actually contract with prison, prison get the major cut of usually 800 rmb, and the prison give 20% of it to the prisoner. The money is little, but better than nothing. However, their productivity remain low due to low incentive, but again, that is better than nothing. My family's firm want to buy some cement for a building project, and only find out the best offer is from the biggest prison in Guangxi province. We found out that actually, that prison is the top 5 cement factory in Guangxi. Well, it is only economy, a average labor cost about 2000-3000 rmb in Guangdong province, and company only need to pay prison labor for 800rmb, that is a good deal. It make economic sense.

I'm sure you have an equally elaborate and well thought out justification for injecting acid into a newborns brain to ensure adherence to the once child policy. What do you commie masters pay you to skip from forum to forum doing this?

And lest I forget, welcome to DFI

 

[tony4562]

Harry Wu harbours a lot of personal hatred against CCP, no doubt about it. His father was executed when Mao came to power. And he himself spent some time in prison for non-political crimes before migrating to the US. And unlike many so-called overseas democracy advocates Harry Wu is a US citizen, and he is on the payroll of the big labour union.

He mentioned he was arrested in 1995 upon enterering China, but did he mention that he was entering china illegally using falsified passport? Most of his opinion is a mixture of bias and out right lies. For example, he ought to know US has more prisoners than China, both in absolute number as well as per population basis.

 

[mylegend]

Forgive my grammatic and other error from previous reply,I wrote it in a hurry

I'm sure you have an equally elaborate and well thought out justification for injecting acid into a newborns brain to ensure adherence to the once child policy. What do you commie masters pay you to skip from forum to forum doing this?

And lest I forget, welcome to DFI

I hate dictatorship just like many other Chinese, all I am saying is commercialization of prison is not a bad idea. Please read through my reply, I got some word error like "commercialization of inmate" from my previous reply, but that doesn't make me a writer for the CCP. I wrote the reply in a short time without double checking it. And please, if possible, indicate any point that I mention from previous reply that I support the regime. I even hint corruption as a cause a large local debt by "historic reason". Okay, I admit that was vague. Anyway, you are blind by your hatred.

 

[mylegend]

I'm against the my nation's legal system but not commercialization of prison. A person committed a crime, he need to repay for it by working, not enjoying workout all day. Another reason to put prisoner to work is that can reduce the risk of prison riot, just like ship captain before modern time forced the sailors to do many meaningless chores to keep them busy. Again, the problem is that if a legal system put a innocent man into jail not prison forcing prisoner to work not commercialization of prison. When you committed crime, you lose right, you are not in vocation!

 

[kickok1975]

I hate dictatorship just like many other Chinese, all I am saying is commercialization of prison is not a bad idea. Please read through my reply, I got some word error like "commercialization of inmate" from my previous reply, but that doesn't make me a writer for the CCP. I wrote the reply in a short time without double checking it. And please, if possible, indicate any point that I mention from previous reply that I support the regime. I even hint corruption as a cause a large local debt by "historic reason". Okay, I admit that was vague. Anyway, you are blind by your hatred.

I agree. Let those criminals pay their dues. it's better than waste tons of tax payers money like here in US.

 

[satish007]

A.V. likes mylegend so much, is his account hacked? but welcome, mylegend.

 

[Ray]

Every post of yours has muslim in it. Either your a deranged paki or exponentially misinformed.

It is so obvious that he is indeed a Muslim and a Pakistani.

 

[Ray]

I presume that China puts manpower, be it prisoners or otherwise, to devote themselves to constructive use.

One can call it slave labour or anything similar.

I am sure they are paid for their labour since that would be fair and pro people.

 

[Ray]

I'm against the my nation's legal system but not commercialization of prison. A person committed a crime, he need to repay for it by working, not enjoying workout all day. Another reason to put prisoner to work is that can reduce the risk of prison riot, just like ship captain before modern time forced the sailors to do many meaningless chores to keep them busy. Again, the problem is that if a legal system put a innocent man into jail not prison forcing prisoner to work not commercialization of prison. When you committed crime, you lose right, you are not in vocation!

You are right.

However, even then one should draw a line and not be Capt Bligh.

 

[mylegend]

I presume that China puts manpower, be it prisoners or otherwise, to devote themselves to constructive use.

One can call it slave labour or anything similar.

I am sure they are paid for their labour since that would be fair and pro people.

You can sure call them slave labor. They got pay way below minimum wages, in some case, prison may took all the shares and decide not to give any, that is perfectly possible. Yet, that is what criminals deserve. Of course there is abuse, what do you expect from a prison to be in China?

Let be clear on this matter, making prisoners work is good in my opinion, but putting innocent man into prison is not.

Despite the total GDP, China is still a poor country, GDP per capital rank among the lowest in the world "thanks" to Mao. According to CIA World Factbook, Chinese GDP(official exchange rate) is $5.878 trillion, and China has a population of 1,336,718,015 (July 2011 est.). A simple calculation would put Chinese GDP per capital at $4397.3373. What a impoverished nation, with so many corrupted "civil servant" taking away billions of dollar every day from its citizens, with so many perfectly functioning road being rebuild every few month for the benefit of the few, with so many people struggling to buy a house where they can call "home", people have little or no sympathy for those criminals in prison. Of course, if we can, we want to put the corrupted official into Just trial, but that is simply impossible.

But you see, there is a bright side, economy is improving, and our living standard is improving every year, that is why CCP still exist. But this may not work forever, people may eventually take the matter into their own hand and torn down the regime with their own hand. Your life can improve economically, but without dignity. Your wife and daughter can be raped by sons of government officials, and there will not be a trial. Can you still remain silent? Can you?

Well, I am off-topic. Just for your knowledge, CCP spend more money on WEIWEN or stabilty maintaining than on military.This might sound exaggerating, but it is true. WEIWEN spending is at least more than the military budget Chinese Government disclosed. This is sad, that is why I believe that it is vulnerable. But again, as long as life is improving, thing can hardly go wrong for CCP, but you never know.

PS: I honestly think Falungong is a cult, for their classic is full of contradiction and how Falungong profited from its follower. But that is just my opinion, you can have yours. You can do little research on this cult if you want to and you may find out why many people in China dislike them.

 

[mylegend]

A.V. likes mylegend so much, is his account hacked? but welcome, mylegend.

Thank you for your welcome? Anyway, I can't even do programming. That is my answer for you. I am glad that someone would like my reply... I just think A.V. also agree with criminals should "pay their due" just like kickok1975 suggested.

 

[Pope Benedict XVI]

Thank you for your welcome? Anyway, I can't even do programming. That is my answer for you. I am glad that someone would like my reply... I just think A.V. also agree with criminals should "pay their due" just like kickok1975 suggested.

ah, why they should pay dues even they can barely breath free air and always locked up in a 6x6 cell... that is not enjoyable..

most prisoner have problems like depression, suicide thoughts etc or most of them just gave up on their life. they get heavy memory lose, they lose situation awareness, they just go crazy or mentally challenged. and yet they have to pay dues?

 

[mylegend]

ah, why they should pay dues even they can barely breath free air and always locked up in a 6x6 cell... that is not enjoyable..

most prisoner have problems like depression, suicide thoughts etc or most of them just gave up on their life. they get heavy memory lose, they lose situation awareness, they just go crazy or mentally challenged. and yet they have to pay dues?

Maybe what you talk about is true, I don't know. I never been to a prison myself. However, I can imagine if I have a daughter being rape by a criminal, I will have no sympathy for the raper. People need to be punished if they committed a felony, and if depression is the punishment, then let it be. It is his choose to be become depress by committing crime against other innocent people.