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German Bundestag Denounces Forced Labour Goods from China

DW Staff (act)May 11, 2007

The German parliament has passed a resolution denouncing China's Laogai camp system and angered the Chinese government. Laogai stands for "reform through work" and the camps are similar to the Soviet Gulag. Criminals, dissidents or otherwise disagreeable people are subjected to hard physical labour.

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German Bundestag in Berlin
German Bundestag in BerlinImage: AP

Until the very last minute, the Chinese embassy in Berlin tried to prevent the resolution from being passed. Members of parliament said the Chinese had threatened them with a serious decline in Sino-German relations, but they said that they would not be bullied by anybody.

A Chinese hint that the next round of the human rights dialogue between Berlin and Beijing was coming up, so there was no point in passing the resolution now also had no impact. MPs said they hoped the government would defend the parliament's position at the negotiating table.

Apart from the Left Party, all the parliamentary factions approved the resolution. Germany is the second country after the US to denounce the Laogai system.

International pressure needed

The Chinese human rights activist Harry Wu has been calling for such a measure for years. He said that the Chinese government had always denied there was forced labour in the country. "The more countries denounce it, the stronger the pressure on China will become."

Forced labour is a common penalty for political prisoners in China, but common criminals are also being sent to the Laogai. The police can impose a stretch of up to four years without a court case. Wu spent nineteen years in a labour camp.

He is now the director of a US-based foundation which documents the camp system. He estimated that there were about two million people in the camps but said only the Chinese government has exact figures.

Camps passed off as normal companies

The camps are passed off as normal companies so that business can be done with the West. Wu explained that clients were received at the main entrance, and the forced labourers are brought to work by the back gate.

It's difficult to prove that goods have been manufactured with forced labour, said

Peter Müller from the International Society for Human Rights who welcomed the resolution.

"We hope that the resolution will have a significant impact, and the German business world will do its utmost to make sure that imported goods don't come from the Laogai camps."

US law against Laogai goods

In the United States, there is a law against importing Laogai goods. The US government has compiled a blacklist of thirty products. But Wu was sure there were many more.

In 1992, the US and China signed a contract whereby Beijing would declare which exports had been manufactured with forced labour. So far, China has never made such a declaration.