Made in China: The top five products allegedly manufactured in Chinese Gulags

[grahamhgreen]

Can we please stop the TPP and other costly trade agreements now? They are bad for America, even worse for these poor souls.

But while in the U.S. it’s generally hardened criminals who process meat, build dorm room furniture and sew lingerie, in China the situation is far different. Beginning in the 1950s, the Communist Party set up controversial reform-by-labor camps, or Laogai, as a way for the government to maintain order. Since then, the labor camps have imprisoned petty thieves, prostitutes and political agitators. (China’s Ministry of Justice says 160,000 people were imprisoned in 350 camps at the end of 2008.)

Those sentenced to the Laogai often never receive a trial and are often there for many years, work grueling hours, making everything from circuit boards to blue jeans. Ex-prisoners have complained of severe beatings, a paucity of food and infestation by disease carrying pests, according to Human Rights Watch. And while the Chinese government says that products made in these prisons aren’t exported, many Chinese labor camps manufacture their goods under different names. That’s led many analysts to believe that these these prison-made goods, which are illegal in the U.S., have flooded the global marketplace. Here’s a roundup of products that have allegedly been made in the Laogai:

http://www.vocativ.com/06-2013/made-in-prison-chinese-dissidents-u-s-criminals/

[Curmudgeoness]

1. Most of those were not surprising

and seem impossible to avoid. The only possible was to avoid some of these things is to not buy anything made in China. The rubber products would be in so many items coming from China that you can't get around it. How is it that we cannot stop this by putting pressure on China and refusing to allow any imports until they do something about it. Yeah, I know...corporations run the country.

But....fucking organs!!! I would not consider forced organ donations as a "product", but that is about as bad as it gets.

[OhioChick]

2. Organs?

[Catherina]

3. They're bad for all poor souls except exploiters.

My consciences says to rec this but it's not just them. The poor Hondurans, Guatemalans, who work 12 hour shifts for slave wages aren't that much better off. They don't get the beatings and can see the sunshine but it's just another relative degree of slavery. 100% behind stopping the TPP and other costly trade agreements now.