US Congressional Committee Examines China's Forced Labor Camps

Описание: At a roundtable meeting on May 9th, the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China discussed the system of re-education-through-labor camps, or RTL camps, under the Chinese regime.

[Professor Ira Belkin, Executive Director, US-Asia Law Institute, NYU]:
"The crux of re-education through labor has been a system of administrative detention with no judicial review where the police have the authority to send someone to a re-education through labor camp, to incarceration up to four years, based on a very vague set of standards, and again with no judicial process."

The system is better known as forced labor camps. It's been around since the 1950s and is used mainly to silence dissent. Professor Ira Belkin said the system itself has come under question for violating China's own constitution.

These forced labor camps gained attention last year in the US, when this woman from Oregon discovered a letter believed to have been written by an inmate at the Masanjia Labor Camp. The letter was hidden inside a box of Halloween decorations. It detailed grueling conditions for the inmates there, working as forced laborers.

Masanjia was further scrutinized at the roundtable discussion, with a screening of this newly released documentary "Women Above Ghosts' Head." New York Times photographer Du Bing interviewed former inmates. They describe the camp as a quote, "hell on earth."

Since the Chinese regime's new leadership came in last November, there have been discussions that the labor camp system could be reformed, or even abolished.

Some say reform will not be enough.

[Li Xiaorong, Independent Scholar]:
"I think the US Congress should strongly urge the Chinese government to abolish RTL, to steer clear of replacing RTL camps with any other extra-legal detention facilities and free all detainees in RTL camps and allow them access to justice in holding their abusers accountable and seeking redress for damages."

Li recommends that the US should deny entry to Chinese officials responsible for torture or abuse inside these camps, and that their assets should also be frozen overseas.

NTD News, Washington DC.

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