Heart recipients' hospital has China death-row link

SHANGHAI (Kyodo) Two Japanese nationals in their 50s received heart transplants between 2001 and 2004 at a Shanghai hospital whose organs mainly come from death-row inmates, sources at a Taiwanese company that arranged the procedures said Thursday.

Japan was seemingly unaware of the cases, as a survey released March 9 by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said there were no cases of Japanese receiving heart transplants in Asia outside of Japan.

Ethical and medical concerns have often been raised regarding organ transplants in China over issues that include the use of organs of prisoners on death row and uncertain postsurgery health-care, experts said.

More than 100 Japanese nationals have to date received heart transplants abroad. The number is considered high, and is attributed to the scarcity of donors available in Japan due to strict requirements that donors, who must be declared brain-dead, be age 15 or above and that consent be given by both the donor and the next of kin.

Only 160 cases of organ transplants, including 31 heart transplants, have taken place in Japan over the span of eight years and five months since legislation for organ transplants took effect in October 1997.

However, over 12,000 patients are registered on the Japan Organ Transplant Network waiting for matching donors.

While a heart transplant in advanced nations, including the United States, is estimated to cost some $ 860,000 (about 100 million yen), including travel expenses, the sources of the Taipei-headquartered Yeson Healthcare Service Network said it only costs about 13 million yen to 14 million yen at the Zhongshan Hospital in Shanghai.

The sources said a man who lives in Japan received a heart transplant at the hospital, which is affiliated with Fudan University, in 2001 and a Japanese woman who resides in the Netherlands underwent the surgery in 2004. Both are now healthy, they added.

Most organs used in transplants at the hospital come from death-row prisoners in China, the sources said. The patients get their blood tested at the hospital and it usually takes about two to three weeks to locate a suitable prisoner as the "donor."

Masanjia Labor Camp

Location: Masanjia Labor Camp, Shenyang City, Liaoning Province

The Masanjia Labor Camp, is notorious for its heinous crimes against Falun Gong practitioners. In one incident that was reported by several news agencies, 18 female practitioners were stripped naked and thrown into the cells of male criminals. There also have been reports of multiple deaths of Falun Gong practitioners in this labor camp.

The Masanjia Labor Camp is a fascist camp for the purpose of enslaving prisoners to perform labor for profit. Prisoners must work for extended hours under the most appalling conditions. The main “business” of the women’s section of the Masanjia Labor Camp is textile production. Not only are the detainees not paid, but also their work hours and workloads are pushed to the limit to “boost productivity and profits.” TheNo.1 Female Camp is known to outsiders as the “Shenyang Yihua Clothes Factory.” Among its products, are exported goods, such as casual wear, sports suits, and pajamas. Their handicrafts are also exported. They make products for individual retailers such as the “Wuai Market” in Shenyang City. Their product lines include brand-name sportswear and down-filled coats carrying the brand name “Jia Yuan.”

Falun Gong practitioners from 14 years of age to over 60 have been forced to do intensive labor in the labor camp. They are routinely forced to work 14-16 hours a day, with no days off. Sometimes when there is a big order, they are forced to work for 36 hours nonstop. The guards in the labor camp have complete control over the workload of the prisoners, arbitrarily depriving them of lunch, dinner, or sleeping time in order to extract more work from them.

Falun Gong practitioners live in the most inhumane conditions. There is no bathroom in the camp. They are not allowed to brush their teeth, or to wash, shower, or change their clothes. Even the time for using the toilet is limited. The food given is minimal and is often rotten. The horrendous conditions and excessive workload damage the health of the practitioners. Many have swollen legs and experience irregular menstruation. Some even develop atrophy of their buttocks due to the extensive hours of being forced to sit still and work. Due to exhaustion, some have even fainted while working. However, no matter what physical conditions they are in, and no matter what the state of their health, they are not spared from the hard labor.

The trademark of a product produced in Masanjia.

1. Forced to Make Clothing for Export

Zhou Yanchun, female, 33, product Inspector of the Shenyang Antibiotic Factory 104 workshop (illegally dismissed because she practices Falun Gong), resident of Haiwang Street construction working committee, New Town District, Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, ID number: 210113680412642

On October 14, 1999, police arrested Ms. Zhou Yanchun when she went to Beijing to appeal to the central government to stop persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. On October 31, Ms. Zhou was imprisoned at the Masanjia Labor Camp.

In the labor camp, Ms. Zhou was forced to make products for export, such as clothing, handicrafts, and embroidered goods, for the “Xinghua Clothing Manufacturer.” She was forced to work from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., and sometimes even until midnight, with no breaks, no weekends off, and no compensation. Her hands were often swollen and covered with blood blisters, and her finger joints ached from the strenuous work. She was only given a limited amount of mildewed cornbread to eat. Her health declined rapidly. Due to the long work hours and appalling conditions, her face and eyes were swollen and she suffered intense abdominal pain. Yet, she was still not allowed to take any breaks. If she ever slumped over from weariness or showed signs of fatigue, she would be shocked with electric batons by the guards.

2. Forced to Work for Extended Hours to Make Products for Export

Falun Gong practitioners, including Ms. Liu Fengmei, Ms. Cui Yaning, Ms. Xie Baofeng, Ms. Dong Guixia, Ms. Jiang Wei, Xu sisters, Ms. Li Ping, Ms. Luo Li, Ms. Li Yingxuan, Ms. Li Zemei, Ms. Bai Shuzhen, have been illegally imprisoned at the Masanjia Labor Camp due to the central government’s persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. Some of them have already served their full sentences, but the authorities refuse to release them because they will not renounce Falun Gong.

The practitioners are forced to work from 6 a.m. to 12 a.m., making clothing, handicrafts, and embroidery for export. They have no breaks, no weekends off, and no compensation. Sometimes they are forced to work for as long as 36 hours without a break. From March 7 to 12, 2000, they were forced to work on a batch of products that were waiting to be immediately shipped overseas because the customer had a rush order. On March 11, 2000, they were informed that they would have to work overtime. They were forced to work non-stop from 6:30 a.m. on March 11, 2000 to 4 p.m. on March 12, 2000 (totaling 33.5 hours). However, on March 12, they had not been able to finish the assigned work. To punish them, the guards did not allow them to eat lunch. In addition, the guards beat or shocked the practitioners with electric batons.

3. Forced to Work for 31 Hours Nonstop

Falun Gong practitioners detained in the No. 3 team of the No. 1 Division at the women’s section of the Masanjia Labor Camp

On March 7, 2001, the No. 3 team of the No. 1 division of the women’s section of the labor camp received a batch of yellow, nylon-silk material for making exported casual wear. Falun Gong practitioners detained in this team were ordered to make 300 garments in five days. The guards forced practitioners to work from 8:30 a.m. on March 11, to 4 p.m. on March12, 31.5 hours nonstop. The practitioners were not allowed to leave their sewing machines and work benches for a day and a night. Totally ignoring their exhaustion and hunger, the guards kept threatening, cursing, and beating them, forcing practitioners to continue to work. The guards even forced the practitioners to skip meals.

Dalian Yaojia Detention Center and Dalian Labor Camp

Location: Dalian Yaojia Detention Center and Dalian Labor Camp, Dalian City, Liaoning Province

Falun Gong practitioners are tortured, forced to live in inhumane, unsanitary conditions, and are forced to do hard labor for extended hours at Dalian Labor Camp in Dalian City. More than 130 Falun Gong practitioners are forced to live in rooms only 60square meters in size. In the hot summer, foul smells fill the air. The practitioners are not allowed to brush their teeth, go to the toilet, take a shower, or change clothes. Infectious diseases are rampant. The food is extremely bad and often mildewed and sour. Sometimes the team leaders of the camp give electric batons and other torture tools to the criminal prisoners and instruct them to beat the Falun Gong practitioners. Whoever beats the practitioners is rewarded with a reduced sentence. Practitioners Mr. Liu Yonglai, Mr. Chen Jiafu, and Ms. Sun Lianxia were tortured to death at the Dalian Labor Camp.

In the Dalian Yaojia Detention Center, the guards use various means to torture the Falun Gong practitioners including handcuffing them to the window bars, exhorting or demanding criminal inmates to beat them, and shackling them with a device called “Di Lao” in which their hands and feet are chained to a heavy steel frame 20 inches high and 15 inches wide. Practitioners are forced to do all kinds of hard labor. Ms. Chi Yulian was tortured to death at the Dalian Yaojia Detention Center.

1. Tortured and Forced to Work 15 Hours a Day

Ding Defu, male, 41, born November 26, 1960, a driver for the Dalian City East Second Electric Company, lives at 288-605, Huangpu Road, LingshuiBridge, Shahe District, Dalian City, Liaoning Province

Mr. Ding Defu was arrested at work on July 7,2000, for refusing to renounce Falun Gong. Policeman Lin Hai took him to the Dalian Yaojia Detention Center (also called the Dalian Detention Center). On August 4, 2000, Mr. Ding was transferred to the Dalian Labor Camp. Before his arrest, Mr. Ding was a healthy man without any diseases. However, because of the unsanitary conditions in the labor camp (there was no separation of the prisoners with infectious diseases), Mr. Ding was stricken with a severe skin disease and his whole body was covered with scabies. Sometimes Mr. Ding was not allowed to shower for a month and could not drink water for a whole day. Without giving any care for Mr. Ding’s physical condition, the police forced him to wrap copper loops on electronic equipment for 10 to 15 hours a day. When he could not finish a large assignment, he was beaten and not allowed to sleep. One time, Mr. Ding was forced to work for 15 -20 hours a day, from 5:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., assembling ballpoint pens, which were labeled “Made in Korea.”

In November 2000, there were festering sores all over Mr. Ding’s body, including his genitals. However, he was still forced to do hard labor, which included lifting 500 to 600 bags of beans a day, each weighing 50 kg. The strenuous work caused his sores to break open, leaving stains all over his underwear. Mr. Ding was suffering extreme pain and could not sleep at night. The chiefs of both the Dalian Yaojia Detention Center and the labor camp often told Mr. Ding that if he renounced his belief in Falun Gong, he would not suffer any longer.

2. Tortured and Forced to Work more than 16 Hours a Day

Jin Tingdong male, 38, born on December 28, 1964, an instructor of the Dalian Sea Transportation Institution, and a resident at 101, No. 66, Langhua Street, Shahekou District, Dalian City, Liaoning Province.

On July 7, 2000, Mr. Jin Tingdong was arrested for refusing to renounce Falun Gong and was sent to the Dalian Yaojia Detention Center. The living conditions at the detention center were terrible. Mr. Jin was forced to live in a room of only 40 square meters with nearly 30 people, including hospital patients who had hepatitis or scabies. The sanitary conditions were very bad. The dishes were dirty. Prisoners could not brush their teeth, take showers or change their clothes. The quality of Mr. Jin’s meals was very poor and he almost never had enough to eat. The drinking water was also dirty and in very limited supply. Sometimes, Mr. Jin did not get any water to drink for an entire day. On August 4, 2000, Mr. Jin was transferred to the Dalian Labor Camp where he was forced to work over 16 hours a day, from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.. Mr. Jin was in good health before he was arrested. After one year of forced labor in the labor camp, he became very weak and his body was covered with scabies.

In the labor camp, Mr. Jin was forced to assemble ballpoint pens that were labeled, "Made In Korea." For ten to fifteen hours a day, he was forced to wrap copper wire for all kinds of electronic equipment. He was also given a large quota. Though he did his best, he could barely meet the quota each day. He was beaten, sworn at, and often deprived of sleep for long periods.

Starting on August 10, 2000, Mr. Jin was forced to work with the kiln to make bricks. His work also included heavy physical construction-style work such as digging with a pickaxe, lifting and carrying such resources as loess (fine-grained deposits of silt), mineral stone, and stone powder. Every morning, Mr. Jin had to get up at 4:30 a.m. to clean the cell corridors and the stairwell. He arrived for work at 5:50 a.m. and started to work at 6 a.m. sharp. Mr. Jin was not given a break until 11:30 a.m. At 12:30 p.m., he began working again until 6 p.m. or sometimes 7:30 p.m. (before going back for dinner). When he got very tired and worked slowly, the guards or the captain would curse at him and beat him.

Mr. Jin had to work two different shifts: one week of days and another week of nights. The evening shift started at 7 p.m. and went until 6 a.m. There were no exceptions, regardless of the weather, and there was no protection from the sun, rain, or snow. Because of the unsanitary conditions, Mr. Jin’s scabies became very serious. His entire body was covered with pus from festering wounds. Still, he had to continue to work.

Starting on December 5, 2000, Mr. Jin’s major work duties included picking beans, lifting and moving big bags of beans, and stacking the bags. The intensity and length of time that he had to work also increased. Every day, he was forced to work on a plantation from 5:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. (sometimes even as late as midnight). He was allotted thirty minutes for his meals (ten minutes per meal). He was allowed no other breaks.

The chiefs from both the Dalian Yaojia Detention Center and the labor camp often told Mr. Jin that if he renounced Falun Gong, he would not have to suffer any longer.

Heizuizi Women’s Labor Camp

Location: Heizuizi Women’s Labor Camp, Changchun City, Jilin Province

Slave Labor is Used to Produce Miniature Japanese Figurines

The Heizuizi Women’s Labor Camp in Changchun City, Jilin Province is notorious for its torture of Falun Gong practitioners. The guards at the labor camp publicly claim that “This is hell on earth” and use various cruel and degrading ways of torture to try to force the practitioners to renounce Falun Gong.

The harsh treatment of Falun Gong practitioners in Heizuizi Women’s Labor Camp has routinely included detention incommunicado, hard labor for 18 to 19 hours a day, sleep deprivation for a week or longer, solitary confinement, and savage beatings. Shock with electric batons is so common that the guards regard it as a matter of "electric policy." The guards sometimes shock a practitioner with multiple batons simultaneously for a long time, to the point where the smell of burnt flesh fills the air. Sometimes the guards force an electric baton into a practitioner's mouth to shock her. This often leads to the disfiguring of one's face. A particular degrading torture is the "death bed" where one is stripped naked or wears only a T-shirt and is handcuffed and shackled to an iron bed. Movement is completely restricted, leading to painful muscular atrophy. The release of stool and urine is on the iron bed, resulting in unsanitary conditions. Often the practitioner is also left in a freezing storage room. When practitioners resort to hunger strikes to protest the inhuman treatment, they are often subjected to force-feeding. Injections of nerve-damaging chemicals has also been used for torture. Practitioner Ms. Yin Shuyun was tortured to death at the Heizuizi Women’s Labor Camp.

The Heizuizi Women’s Labor Camp is seriously violating international treaties signed by China. The guards force people in the labor camp to manufacture products for export. Companies exporting products made in China are using slave labor to manufacture their goods. For example, Falun Gong practitioners in Group 6 at the Heizuizi Labor Camp produce miniature Japanese human figurines for export to Japan. Other teams produce miniature birds and other items for export to western countries such as the U.K. and the U.S. Companies that pay wages to their workers cannot compete with Chinese goods made with slave labor. Furthermore, there is no incentive for China to stop using slave labor when so many people profit from this abuse.

Xiguoyuan Detention Center

Location: Xiguoyuan Detention Center, LanzhouCity, Gansu Province

1. Practitioner Tortured and Forced to Crack Melon Seeds with Teeth

Li Mingyi, male, resident of Qilihe area, Lanzhou City, Gansu Province

In February 2000, Mr. Li Mingyi was arrested and imprisoned at the Xiguoyuan Detention Center in Lanzhou City for 3 months. He endured various forms of inhumane treatment there. He was held, along with criminals, in a small cell that was so overcrowded that he was only able to sleep on his side at night.

The prison authorities made Mr. Li work for the well-known foreign capital enterprise, Gansu "Zhenglin" Melon Seeds. He was forced to remain squatting and crack open melon seeds with his teeth, and then remove the shells with his fingers for more than 12 hours a day. He was only allowed to stop working during lunch and supper. Every day, he was given only a small amount of steamed buns and boiled noodles. When Mr. Li could not finish the large quantity of seeds they gave him to shell, prison guards ordered criminal prisoners to beat him. Because of the long hours of labor and high intensity of the work, Mr. Li's two index fingers and thumbs became deformed with very thick calluses. His lips frequently became extremely swollen and several of his teeth were injured from cracking open the seeds. However, even though he had these injuries, he was still not allowed to rest. Because this type of labor is illegal, the work would be temporarily suspended whenever the detention center officers received notice of planned visits from certain leaders or media reporters. Mr. Li and other prisoners would be told to clean up the work area. All of the unshelled melon seeds would be bundled together and hidden. Mr. Li and the others would be issued newspapers. They were told to sit in rows and pretend to read the newspapers. As soon as the inspection ended, they would be forced to return to work.

2. Professor Tortured and Forced to Crack Melon Seeds with Teeth

Guo Shoujun, male, 36, a teacher at the Northwest Normal University with a doctorate degree, Lanzhou City, Gansu Province

In February 2000, Dr. Guo Shoujun and his wife, Prof. Yang Yongli, were arrested after they went to Beijing to hold up a banner that said, "Falun Gong is Good." Two months later, Prof. Yang was released after being fined 10,000 Yuan. Dr. Guo has been held at the Xiguoyuan Detention Center in Lanzhou City, where he has been forced to perform intensive manual labor for nearly 2 years.

On December 6, 2000, the Anning District Court had a “public trial” for Dr. Guo. The fabricated charge was “using a sect organization to damage the law.” In May 2001, after being illegally detained for 15months, he was secretly sentenced to a three-year jail term but is still being detained at the Xiguoyuan Detention Center.

The conditions at the detention center are extremely harsh. In the summer, Dr. Guo and other inmates had to meet a quota, producing between 1.5 kg. and 2 kg. (3.3 to 4.4 lb.) of melon seeds each day. The work usually starts at 7 a.m.. The procedure is to use the side of one’s teeth to open up a small crack in the shell, then take it out of one’s mouth and use one’s fingers to pick out the seed inside. Dr. Guo and the other inmates had to perform the work in a squatting position for nearly five hours straight. After lunch, they had to resume the work and meet the quota, or they were not allowed to go to sleep. Like many other inmates, Dr. Guo’s fingers were bloody, and some of his fingernails had been peeled away. Yet, they were still forced to work.

In the winter, Dr. Guo and other inmates had to pick out the best-quality seeds from 3.5 kg. (7.7 lb.) bags every day. They were forced to work from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. in a squatting position outside, where the temperature often fell below –18ºC (0ºF). Anyone who could not meet the quota was beaten or punished in other ways. Many inmates suffered from cold sores in the winter. As a result of the inhumane living conditions, the death rate among inmates is quite high.

About 100 Falun Gong practitioners were detained and forced to work at the Xiguoyuan Detention Center. They were routinely locked up for several additional months, even after their terms were completed. Dr. Guo Shoujun has been forced to remain in detention for almost two years now, during which time his family has never been allowed to visit him.

Dr. Guo was an outstanding researcher and teacher at his university. He was the winner of many research grants from the Gansu Province Young Researcher’s Fund, and was in charge of a number of medical and pharmaceutical research projects under the Ministry of Technology. He was also a key researcher at the New Technology Development Project at the university. Because he is a Falun Gong practitioner, he has been illegally detained for a prolonged period and has been forced to pick out melon seeds every day. Currently, he is seriously injured and extremely weak.

3. Practitioners Forced to Shell Sunflower Seeds

Xi Lilin, Xing Yuangui, Xiao Yanhong, Li Baosheng, Zheng Fenru, Yao Yongqiang, Zhu Huilan, and Ma Jun, residents of Lanzhou City, Gansu Province

Wang Desheng, resident of Yinchuan City, Ningxia Province

Lu Xiangdong, resident of Tongxin County, Ningxia Province

Many Falun Gong practitioners detained at the Xiguoyuan Detention Center, Lanzhou City, are forced to do hard labor without compensation. Each practitioner is required to shell 1.5 – 2 kg. (3.3-4.4 lbs.) of sunflower seeds every day. They are required to work 17 hours a day, from 7 a.m. to 12 a.m.. They are not allowed to sit, kneel on the floor, or stand up. They are forced to squat to do the labor. They have to continue shelling after lunch and cannot go to bed if the work is not finished. Their hands bleed from shelling for extended periods of time. The cell leader continuously abuses and beats them. Some practitioners have been detained for over three months.

Wanjia Labor Camp

Location: Wanjia Labor Camp, Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province

Since December 14, 1999, thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been sent to the Wanjia Labor Camp because they would not give up their belief in Falun Gong.

Falun Gong practitioners are forced to sleep on wet weed mats that were stored in the snow during the winter. Some are forced to sleep on the ground and many are deprived of sleep altogether. Most of the practitioners at the labor camp have scabies on their bodies and have been suffering from scabies for a longtime. They also have endured intense itching from the scabies, and have lost of sleep at night. Yet, they are still overloaded with work and are tortured every day.

The police officers in the camp torture practitioners using the most disgraceful means and often abuse their authority. Severe beatings, cursing, and starvation are common methods of torture used on practitioners.

The Wanjia Labor Camp uses solitary confinement compartments to hold Falun Gong practitioners. The compartments are about 1.3 meters wide and 2.2 meters long (some are 1.5 meters high), cold and wet. Some practitioners have been locked in those solitary compartments for over 10 months. They are not allowed to take baths, or to wash their clothes. They are also not allowed to talk or meet with their families. They are forced to sleep on the cold floor. They are usually starved and they are often cursed and beaten.

It is a common practice to arbitrarily extend the detention terms of the Falun Gong practitioners held in the labor camp. In addition, the practitioners are hung up so their feet cannot touch the ground and are then beaten. They are forced to work long hours, during which time they are physically abused by being electrically shocked or kicked. They are even tied to an iron chair for a long period. The female practitioners are often sexually abused and raped. Because of this severe torture, more than ten practitioners have died.

1. Forced to Work with Poisonous Materials without Proper Protection

Qu Fengqing, female, 57, home address: No. 32 Jiancao Street, Dongli District, Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province

Ms. Qu Fengqing was detained in the No. 2 Detention Center in Harbin City for 81 days. Then she was transferred to the Wanjia Labor Camp. In the labor camp, she was forced to do heavy labor such as loading and unloading trucks. For the night shift, she had to work past midnight. For the day shift, she had to work until 10 p.m.. She was also forced to make slippers, which exposed her to poisonous adhesives without proper protection.

2. Forced to Work 20 Hours a Day without Breaks

Ms. Bao, female, from Jilin Province

In late 2000, and early 2001, Ms. Bao and other practitioners were forced to work from 4 a.m. to 12 a.m. the next morning without a break. They were only allowed to use the toilet twice a day. They were not given time to wash their faces or brush their teeth. The guard of Unit No. 4, Wang Jing, often forced practitioners to listen to anti-Falun Gong brainwashing propaganda against their will until 1 a.m. or 2 a.m. in the morning after finishing their work. Ms. Bao and other practitioners often had to wash dishes and clothes for the guards and their families.

3. Forced to Make Slippers for Export to Japan

Huang Ming, female, 39, home address: #848 Qilunsidao Street, Dongli District, Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province

Ms. Huang Ming was sent to the Wanjia Labor Camp and forced to do intensive work making slippers for export to Japan. The glue used was toxic, and it made her hands and face itch. She and other practitioners were forced to work every day from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m.. They were only given a few minutes for meals and use of the toilet; no other breaks were permitted. Sometimes they were even forced to continue to work the night shift. The space for sleeping was no more than 18 cm. wide (about 7 inches) and there was not enough room for them to extend their legs. They had to sleep sideways and they were not allowed to turn their bodies while sleeping, and could not use the toilet at night. Socks could only be washed twice a month. The practitioners were not allowed to use the restroom or drink water without permission. They were forced to work without compensation, but they had to sign false documents that claimed they were paid.

Yitong Autonomous County Detention Center

Location: Jilin Province

Forced to Make Handcrafted Birds

Falun Gong practitioners detained in the Yitong Autonomous County Detention Center, Jilin Province, are forced to make handcrafted birds (made with stem pith, wrapped in foam, with bark, wings, and tail feathers) for export. They are forced to work for extended hours, from early morning to late at night. Sometimes, when there is a rush order, they will be even forced to work three or four days in a row without sleeping. The guards closely watch the practitioners and beat anyone whose work slows down because of their exhaustion. Not only do the guards often beat Falun Gong practitioners, they also instigate other inmates to beat practitioners. The torturers look for the slightest excuse to beat Falun Gong practitioners.

Shandong Women's Labor Camp

Location: Jinan City, Shandong Province. Telephone number: 86-531-8931747

Forced to Work with Toxic Materials

At the Shandong Women's Labor Camp, Falun Gong practitioners are forced to work from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., including weekends and holidays. They have to sit at their workstation all day and are permitted only a few minutes for lunch and dinner. The food is of poor quality and the portions are very small. They are rarely allowed to take a break during the day, except for going to the restroom. Because of the long hours of sitting without moving, most of them have developed edema (swelling due to lack of vital fluid to cell tissues in body cavities) in their feet and legs. Many practitioners are weakened by the hard labor and intolerable conditions. At the beginning of April 2001,more than half of the practitioners showed symptoms of intoxication from working with noxious chemicals. They vomited and had diarrhea, indicating signs of systemic poisoning.

Xin'an Labor Camp

Location: Xin'an Labor Camp, Beijing

Cute Toy Rabbits Belie Suffering in Chinese Labor Camps

Jennifer Zeng, female, 35, from China, now lives in Sydney, Australia, waiting for her refugee status to beassessed

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Jennifer Zeng was detained for 12 months in Beijing’s Xinan Labor Camp, where beatings, electric shocks and sleep deprivation were all part of the re-education program for Falun Gong practitioners. She and about 130 other prisoners were forced to make 100,000 long-eared, buck-toothed toy rabbits, bearing the Nestle brand. They were told that each rabbit would be sold for about six Australian cents (U.S. $0.03). The labor camp took all the money and the prisoners received no compensation. Ms. Zeng and the other prisoners were forced to begin work each day at 5:30 a.m. and continue until early the next day, seven days a week. The prisoners were not permitted to sleep for more than three or four hours between shifts.

Shuanghe Labor Camp

Location:
The Shuanghe Labor Camp, Qiqihar City,Heilongjiang Province
The Northern Siyou Chemical Factory, Qiqihar City, Heilongjiang Province

The Northern Siyou Chemical Factory in Qiqihar City of Heilongjiang Province, is a private enterprise. While colluding with the authorities at the Northern Siyou Chemical Factory, the authorities of the Shuanghe Labor Camp abused its power by forcing Falun Gong practitioners to work long hours for the chemical factory. The labor camp received money for the work performed by the practitioners.

Every day Falun Gong practitioners were forced by the labor camp guards to walk a long distance to the factory. It did not matter if it was raining in summer or if there was a heavy snow in winter. When approaching the factory, one could smell a repulsive smell of chemicals far from the factory. The environment was very dirty in the factory and the job required heavy manual labor. During work hours, a heavy cloud of the chemical powders hung over the entire workshop, and one’s clothes, eyebrows, and eyelashes were soon covered with the powder. Even covering the mouth with several facemasks, one still had a running nose and tearful eyes. These chemicals were extremely harmful to the workers’ health: Some workers’ eyes and faces became reddish and swollen; some workers developed dry and cracked skin; some had nose-bleeds; some had reddish skin; some female workers lost their menstrual periods for several months, some even for an entire year. The factory did not have any working safety system, each worker was only provided with one work suit, one facemask, and no gloves. The regulation stated that safety equipment must be used while producing the pesticides, but the factory never provided such equipment. The practitioners requested many times that the factory should install shower equipment, but the authorities disregarded their requests.

The practitioners were forced to work overtime every day, and forced to work even on holidays and weekends. Whenever pesticides were in great demand, the factory and the labor camp forced the practitioners to get up before 5 a.m., and did not allow time for them to wash their face and brush their teeth. After spending only minutes for a minimal breakfast, they walked to the factory and started to work. There was only half an hour break during lunchtime. They were not allowed to leave the factory until after 11 p.m.. Some criminals from the labor camp were so tired that they cried out loud; some then slipped onto the ground and fell asleep. Sometimes they were not allowed to take showers after going back to the labor camp if the police officer on duty was in a bad mood. During the summer, it was so hot in the factory that the sweat wetted the chemical powder and it stuck to the skin, which made one’s skin very painful. When the sweat evaporated, the skin was painful as well as itchy.

Majialong and Qingyunpu Detention Centers

Location:
Majialong Detention Center, Jiujiang City, Jiangxi Province
Qingyunpu Detention Center, Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province

Male Falun Gong practitioners detained in the Majialong Detention Center are forced to make tungsten for light bulbs from 6:30 a.m. to 11 p.m..

Female Falun Gong practitioners detained in the Qingyunpu Detention Center are forced to make plastic flowers from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

No practitioner is ever paid for his or her work. Only subsistence meals are provided. Anyone who refuses to work the required hours is beaten by the guards.

Jiangbei District Detention Center

Location: Jiangbei District Detention Center is located in Chongqing City, Sichuan Province

Falun Gong practitioners in the Jiangbei District Detention Center are forced to fold paper boxes for medicine. The boxes are labeled “Medicine for Relieving Fever and Stopping Headaches,” “Made in the Chongqing Yaoyou Medicine Manufacturing Company.” The workload would be increased as the “worker” became more skilled, with 500 for the first day, 1,000 the second day, 1,500 the third day, 2,000the fourth day, 2,000 and 3,000 from the fifth day on. Those who could not finish would not be allowed to sleep until the quota was fulfilled. Anyone who made a mistake in making the boxes would be forced to swallow the defective box.

Tumuji Labor Camp

Location: Tumuji Labor Camp is located in ZhalaiteCounty, Xing’an City, Neimenggu Province

Over 100 female Falun Gong practitioners have been detained at the Tumuji Labor Camp. This labor camp has a large farm, and all the required machinery to do farming. However, the camp officials force the Falun Gong practitioners to do all the planting and harvesting without machines to save the wear and tear on the machines and the cost to operate them. To garner more income, the camp also forces the practitioners to work for the local residents. To earn monetary rewards from higher authorities for "transforming" Falun Gong practitioners, guards at the labor camp actively seek to torture practitioners to force them to renounce Falun Gong. Practitioners are often severely beaten. They are stripped naked, and then kicked and punched. One practitioner was shocked by an electric baton forced into her vagina. Many practitioners have had their teeth knocked out, and some have had their faces beaten, swollen, and distorted out of shape to the point that they have difficulty opening their mouths to eat. To prevent anyone outside the labor camp from knowing anything about the horrifying torture, the camp prohibits any visits by family members.

http://web.archive.org/web/20060627150612/http://www.nationalreview.com/nordlinger/nordlinger200603300722.asp

March 30, 2006, 7:22 a.m.
A Place Called Sujiatun
Are they killing Falun Gong, for their organs?

There is a horrifying story going around the world: In the northeast of China, thousands of prisoners are being held, so that they can be killed for their organs. The prisoners are practitioners of Falun Gong, the meditation-and-exercise system. The facility at which they are being held — called a "concentration camp" or a "death camp" — is at Sujiatun. Chinese human-rights activists believe that this name should cause the same shudders as Treblinka and the others.

I cannot say whether this story is true; I can say that one ought to pay attention.

Of course, "organ-harvesting" is a very familiar story: The PRC has been doing it, with prisoners, for many years. In 2001, the U.S. Congress held hearings on the matter, which caused a sensation. But the sensation died down, as sensations tend to do. Organ-harvesting has gone on, with no negative consequences for the Chinese government.

Organ-selling is a huge business for the Chinese. You can obtain organs in China as you can nowhere else: any type, and very speedily.

The subject of organ-harvesting has been revived by the discovery of Sujiatun. I will not attempt to do justice to this story in this space (as though justice could be done). I will mainly direct you to the website of the Epoch Times, and specifically to its archive on Sujiatun: http://web.archive.org/web/20060627150612/http://www.theepochtimes.com/211,111,,1.html . The Epoch Times is an international newspaper whose reason for being is to tell the truth about China. Media in China itself, of course, are government-owned or -controlled.

I also wish to direct you to an article by the tireless Bill Gertz of the Washington Times: http://web.archive.org/web/20060627150612/http://washingtontimes.com/national/20060323-114842-5680r.htm .

How do we know about Sujiatun? Mainly through two witnesses, indescribably brave. One is a woman whose husband was a doctor who took part in the organ-harvesting; the other is a Chinese journalist, long based in Japan, who investigated the matter. Both are now in the United States, in hiding, in fear of their lives. I talked to the journalist, by phone, on Monday morning.

First, a further word about the woman: You can read an Epoch Times interview with her http://web.archive.org/web/20060627150612/http://www.theepochtimes.com/news/6-3-17/39405.html , and a follow-up story http://web.archive.org/web/20060627150612/http://www.theepochtimes.com/news/6-3-21/39480.html . They will give you all the details a human mind can take, and probably more. In brief, her husband became deranged by his work, unable to go on. The wife did not intend to step forward as a witness, but concluded that she had no choice.

I will indulge in just a few details. The woman's husband said to her, "You don't understand my suffering. Those Falun Gong practitioners were alive. It might be easier for me if they were dead, but they were alive."

The woman also said this, to the Epoch Times: "Some poor farmers from nearby places were hired to work in the boiler room. [This served as the crematory.] They were penniless when they first came. . . . But they could scrape up some watches, finger rings, necklaces, and so on. The amount is not small."

Finally, she said, "I would like to expose this to the international community, so those who are not yet killed can be saved. Also, I would like to expose this as an atonement for my family."

Now to the Chinese journalist: His name is Jin Zhong — or so he calls himself for the purpose of media reports. I spoke to him when I was meeting with some Falun Gong activists in a New York conference room. One of them, Charles Lee, was recently released from a Chinese prison after three years' confinement. He was tortured, and I will be writing about him in the next issue of National Review. Dr. Lee is a U.S. citizen, by the way.

And, in a strange twist, he bore witness to organ-harvesting, while a young medical researcher in China, years ago. Prisoners would be shot in the back of the head, and their bodies would be hustled to a waiting van. There, doctors would extract their organs; Charles Lee served as an assistant, holding the instruments. Sometimes, the prisoners seemed not quite dead, he says.

Before Dr. Lee and I talked, I was able to interview Jin Zhong by phone, using an associate of Dr. Lee's as a translator.

For an extended report on Mr. Jin, please see this Epoch Times article: http://web.archive.org/web/20060627150612/http://www.theepochtimes.com/news/6-3-10/39111.html . I will say simply that he found out about Sujiatun when he was investigating SARS, and the extent of the Chinese government's cover-up of that problem. Some local officials let slip information about the Falun Gong camp, and its purpose. He could not believe what he was hearing: It was too horrific, too inhuman. But he pursued the story, and confirmed that what he had heard was true.

I ask Mr. Jin whether the officials felt guilty about this murder and organ-harvesting. He says, "Not at all."

Mr. Jin soon attracted the attention of the police, and was twice detained. He says he was tortured, while in detention. He managed to return to Japan, and then come to the United States. His family remains in Japan, and he says they have received death threats. Obviously, he fears for his own life here in America. PRC agents have never been respecters of national territory.

For those who care, Mr. Jin is not himself a Falun Gong practitioner. (Neither is the woman whose husband performed organ-harvesting.) "I'm not even interested," says Mr. Jin. But he is interested in humanity, and in justice. He says, "I trust that the CCP [the Chinese Communist Party] will try to kill me," for telling about Sujiatun. His life would have been far easier if he had kept quiet, but his conscience would not allow it.

I compliment him on his bravery. He says, "You're a journalist. You wouldn't have done any differently, in my position." I reply, "I can only hope that that is so."

Is the U.S. government aware of Sujiatun? Mr. Jin says he has informed interested congressmen and their aides. And friends of human rights in the media are weighing in. Peter Worthington concluded a piece: http://web.archive.org/web/20060627150612/http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Worthington_Peter/2006/03/25/1505613.html in the Toronto Sun this way: "China's use of prisoners as guinea pigs, or as a supply to meet world demand, makes Nazi medical experimentation seem almost benign by comparison."

No one should bet that Sujiatun will penetrate the world's consciousness. Governments everywhere are keen on smooth relations with the PRC; media, even in free countries, seem to want to help them. The reluctance of major newspapers and TV networks to report on atrocities in China is a sad subject.

And I recall what Robert Conquest, the great analyst of totalitarianism, once told me: The world has seldom wanted to believe witnesses. Ten, 20, or 30 years later, maybe, but rarely sooner.

Testimony out of the early Soviet Union was scoffed at; these were "rumors in Riga." Tales of the Holocaust were Jewish whining. When escapees from Mao spilled into Hong Kong, they were "embittered warlords." When Cubans landed in Florida, they were "Batista stooges." And so on.

There is an extra incentive to look away from persecution when the victims are Falun Gong. Many people are suspicious of these meditators and slow-motion exercisers, with their strange philosophy. And massive Communist propaganda against them has not been without an effect. Western business leaders see Falun Gong standing in their way, or at least irritating them.

I have no idea what will happen to Jin Zhong, or to the wife of the doctor, or to the prisoners who remain in Sujiatun. It may well be that, with some international attention, the Chinese government will Potemkinize the place. They have done as much before, as have many governments like them. And it could be that people will simply not care about Sujiatun, no matter what is proven.

My main hope, at the moment, is that readers will glance at the reports I have mentioned, especially those in the Epoch Times. Because, sometimes, the unthinkable needs to be thought about, just a bit.

Re:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1602444/posts?page=24#24
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1602444/posts?page=25#25
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1602444/posts?page=26#26

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/secrets/wmchina.html
From the beginning, Sam Walton and Wal-Mart focused on buying goods as cheaply as possible, which often meant buying imports. Here is an examination of the history of Wal-Mart's procurement practices in Asia and China -- even through its own "Buy American" promotional campaign in the 1980s and 1990s -- and the prognosis for the future.

Give me a W!
Give me an A!
Give me an L!
Give me a Squiggly!
Give me an M!
Give me an A!
Give me an R!
Give me a T!
What's that spell?
Wal-Mart!

One of Sam Walton's earliest imports from Asia was team spirit. Enthused by a factory cheer he witnessed in 1975 at a Korean tennis ball plant, Walton instituted his own "Wal-Mart Cheer," still a staple of the company's corporate culture. He liked the dramatic device for its "whistle while you work philosophy."

Early in his company's spectacular expansion, "Mr. Sam," as everyone called him, decided to reach across the Pacific and make imports a pillar of Wal-Mart's business model. Forcing his American suppliers to cut costs, stressing sales volume over high margins, and wowing customers by showcasing one super low-priced item in each category -- all hinged on importing to find the cheapest prices.

"Sam was an advocate of importing. It was his vision," said a retired senior executive, who was a buyer in Wal-Mart's Hong Kong office in the 1980s, and who asked to keep his identity private. "Our first office was in Hong Kong, then Taiwan. Korea soon after. We'd visit factories, see how they store goods. You would look at every step of the process very carefully."

"From the beginning, Walton had bought goods wherever he could get them cheapest, with any other considerations secondary," writes Bob Ortega, author of the Wal-Mart history, In Sam We Trust. By the early 1980s, Ortega reports, Walton "increasingly looked to imports, which were usually cheaper because factory workers were paid so much less in China and the other Asian countries."

According to Ortega, Walton himself estimated that imports accounted for nearly 6 percent of Wal-Mart's total sales in 1984. But another observer of that period, Frank Yuan, a former Taiwan-based apparel middleman, who dealt with Wal-Mart in the 1980s, puts the number, including indirect imports, at around 40 percent from "day one." Either way, Walton's vision was a harbinger of far vaster global sourcing today.

And it is a far cry from the picture that many Americans have of the legendary founder of Wal-Mart: "Mr. Sam," the folk hero, who drove around the Ozarks in a pickup truck buying cheap goods for his early discount stores and who became the architect of Wal-Mart's highly publicized "Buy American" campaign in the late 1980s and early '90s.

In truth, Walton's "Buy American" campaign did rescue some U.S. manufacturers, but only those who followed his playbook. In a letter he wrote to suppliers in 1985, he made clear he was committed to buying U.S. goods only if they upgraded their operations and improved productivity to "fill our requirements."

"We're not interested in charity here; we don't believe in subsidizing substandard work or inefficiency," Walton wrote in his 1992 autobiography Made in America. "So our primary goal became to work with American manufacturers, and see if our formidable buying power could help them deliver the goods, and in the process, save some American manufacturing jobs."

As one retired senior Wal-Mart executive explained: "Sam wanted everything possible [made] in the U. S., but he was not going to pay [extra] for it to stay. The main thing he asked was: 'Is it good for our customers?' If not, we went and made it overseas."

And so it is equally true -- and far less well known -- that Sam Walton was the architect of Wal-Mart's unpublicized "Buy Asia" program.

In this strategy, Sam Walton was playing catch-up. Sears, Kmart, Target, and JCPenney all had established procurement networks in Asia long before Wal-Mart arrived. Wal-Mart's decision to arrive unfashionably late was deliberate, according to the retired executive. "In going to Asia and then into China," he said, "department stores always beat us. A lot of people were there long before we were. But it was part of the strategy to let them go through the initial tortures. [Wal-Mart would] step in when all the groundwork had been laid."

So by the time Wal-Mart opened its first buying office in Hong Kong in 1981, "manufacturers were already very competent in Taiwan," said Gary Hamilton, a professor of sociology at the University of Washington. "There was already a high level of confidence and responsiveness that allowed Wal-Mart to rapidly expand."

Other retailers' investments in basic infrastructure and manufacturing clusters primed the Pacific Rim for the eventual stream of Wal-Mart's logistics wizards, hard-nosed buyers and product developers to cash in on low-wage Asian labor. "All of the retailers in the world participated in it," said the retired Wal-Mart buyer, recalling the mood in the old days. "We keep moving around to chase lower wages. Or if there's a tariff, we'll move to a country that does not have the tariff."

Lowering Wal-Mart's Profile in Asia

Even as Wal-Mart was pushing its U.S. suppliers to be more efficient and promoting its "Buy American" program through the '80s, the company bought more and more from Asia, according to Jay Moates, a former accountant with Wal-Mart's overseas buying operation.

But to please American consumers concerned about the Asian threat, the retailer played down its buying operations in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, and the rest of Asia. Following the brutal suppression of Chinese students in Tiananmen Square in 1989 by the Chinese Communist leadership, Walton feared a consumer backlash if Wal-Mart were seen as operating in China. He was also disturbed by charges of human rights abuses in his Asian suppliers' factories.

To continue growing in Asia, Wal-Mart needed a buffer -- a middleman or a buying agency that would purchase Asian products without showing Wal-Mart's hand. According to the retired Hong Kong senior executive, Walton told Bill Fields, Wal-Mart's head buyer, that he wanted to "get out" of direct involvement in Asia. "The decision was to go to an exclusive buying agency," the buyer said. "The main reason for going into [the deal] was not to be exposed as going into Communist China."

Walton needed a trusted friend to act as his Asian middleman. He turned to a close friend and tennis partner, George Billingsley, to serve as the titular head of the operation. No matter that Billingsley, a former real estate salesman, knew next to nothing about retail or procurement. To actually run the operation, Walton found Charles Wong, a seasoned Wal-Mart vendor who knew the U.S. retail business well and was at ease operating in Asia. Billingsley would be a figurehead. Wong would run the day-to-day business of procurement out of Hong Kong.

Within two years, Billingsley and Wong had set up Pacific Resources Export Limited (PREL) as an exclusive buying agent for Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart sold its own Asian buying offices to PREL. The links were so close between PREL and Wal-Mart that "most of the people at Wal-Mart, referred to them as us," said Jay Moates, the PREL accountant. "We hired all the old people from [Wal-Mart's Asian buying] operation."

As PREL provided Wal-Mart cover for its Asian buying, Walton could both continue promoting his "Buy American" campaign at home and expand his overseas procurement out of PREL in Hong Kong.

But several months after Walton's death in April 1992, the "Buy American" campaign backfired when Wal-Mart became the target of a Dateline NBC expose that revealed "Buy American" signs adorning piles of imported goods from Asia. Overnight, an embarrassed Wal-Mart de-emphasized the "Buy American" campaign.

Catching the China Bug

China loomed large for Sam Walton's successors in the years following his death. Deng Xiaoping had opened the country to investment, easing restrictions on foreign businesses, and encouraging Chinese entrepreneurs to enter joint ventures with Westerners. Deng declared the fishing village of Shenzhen, just across the border from Hong Kong, a "special economic zone," with no taxes on foreign businesses for the first few years of operation. Across South China, the government began building roads, ports, and other infrastructure. In 1994, it devalued China's currency, from roughly 5 to 8 yuan to the dollar, further fueling the country's explosive development.

China, suddenly the cheapest workshop in Asia, attracted vast capital investment. Millions of migrant workers flooded industrial centers. World-savvy entrepreneurs migrated from Hong Kong and Taiwan, eager for a piece of the action. Many shut down their plants at home in the rush to set up new factories and hire mainland Chinese workers.

Shenzhen boomed. Growing at 20 percent a year, it became known as China's "Miracle City." In two decades, a fishing village mushroomed into a city of 7 million people, with high rises, miles of factories, and modern electronics headquarters. Here too, Wal-Mart sited its global sourcing headquarters.

Wal-Mart had caught the China bug. In a speech to business schools in the early '90s, David Glass, who succeeded Sam Walton as CEO, advised students to learn Mandarin Chinese. In regional meetings, Glass told Wal-Mart execs that if they didn't think internationally, they were working for the wrong company. "The only reason [manufacturing] moved from Taiwan was China's low level of wages," said one early Wal-Mart Hong Kong buyer. "We didn't have any trouble in China, because the Taiwanese went into China and built up the factories. We were dealing with the same people."

Working through PREL's Asian suppliers, Wal-Mart buyers became actively involved in developing products, and educating the mainland Chinese on how to make goods that would sell in America. "You'd go into a factory in Taiwan that's making men's shirts. You see what works," the Wal-Mart buyer recalled. "And then you go into China and tell a factory in China, 'This is why we're not buying from you.' Chinese people are not dumb. They're tenacious. They know they need to learn very quickly."

In 1992, with Wal-Mart clocking in at a 40 percent annual growth rate, Goldman Sachs analyst George Strachan released a study concluding that Wal-Mart was in the midst of "a major strategic merchandising revolution … breaking from a history of almost exclusive commitment to [U.S.] national-brand products, expanding and improving its private-label offerings … and marketing them more aggressively than ever before."

By lining its shelves with its own in-house brands, Wal-Mart began competing directly, on its own shelves, with its national, household brand-name suppliers. "It makes them more efficient," argues Ray Bracy, Wal-Mart's vice president of international corporate affairs. "I suppose you could suggest that they would like to not have that competition. But it makes them better."

The development of Wal-Mart's house brands proved to be a watershed. Consumer surveys had established that Americans cared less and less about buying national brands: Low price trumped brand loyalty. In the period following Sam Walton's death, when Wal-Mart's sales slowed and its stock price began to stagnate, this consumer trend freed the company to ramp up the production of its house brands through unbranded suppliers in China, who now had privileged access to Wal-Mart's 3,500 stores across America. The result was that Wal-Mart became its own de facto manufacturer, developing and designing products according to the taste of its customers, as analyzed by Wal-Mart's supercomputer. Profits soared.

Privately, long-time U.S. suppliers expressed dismay. "They invaded our core business model," said one apparel maker, requesting that his name be withheld. "Wal-Mart seems intent on managing the total product life cycle." If the competitive pressures of Wal-Mart's store brands continue, he said he would close his American factories, abandon his own brand, and try to solicit Wal-Mart's private label business in China. "We call it 'the race to the bottom,'" he asserted. "It's sad because I see that productivity increases [in America] are still possible through automation. There's room for improved efficiency. But it's impossible [to stay here] with retailers going for cheap Chinese labor."

By now, many American manufacturers, such as the apparel supplier, have little choice but to redefine themselves as "branded distributors" for overseas goods. In other words, instead of making their own products, they use their own brand names to market Chinese-made goods to retailers. They eke out profits by outsourcing production and marketing that production. The process is virtually the final step in the surrender to what Duke University Professor Gary Gereffi calls the Wal-Mart-China "joint venture."

For several years, Wal-Mart has been the single largest U.S. importer of Chinese consumer goods, surpassing the trade volume of entire countries, such as Germany and Russia. Global sourcing is now fully integrated into the company's operations -- giving Wal-Mart enormous leverage worldwide. Foreign products account for nearly all of Wal-Mart's trumpeted low opening price point goods.

During regularly scheduled conference calls with Wall Street analysts, Lee Scott, Wal-Mart CEO since 2000, touts global sourcing as the key to increasing company profits and continuing its expansion.

"No one can compete with China. Such efficiency, such manpower," said Frank Yuan, the former middleman who did business with Wal-Mart, and who now heads an international apparel trade show. "If you look at [Wal-Mart's] shoes or housewares, 80 or 90 percent is coming out of China. And apparel is not as big as it should be." After U.S. quotas on textile imports expire on Jan. 1, 2005, Yuan expects imports from China to rise to 80 percent of the apparel market.

Perfecting the Joint Venture

CEO Lee Scott would continue to improve the Wal-Mart-China joint venture through better predictions of future sales, improved forecasting models of coming fashion trends and the development of a new global sourcing group to succeed PREL that became operational in 2002. Given the improved trade relations with China under President Clinton, and a politically entrenched free trade movement, Scott no longer saw any need to hide Wal-Mart's ties to China.

Scott's vision was to expand global purchasing across the company and aggregate its vast buying power. As one retired senior executive from Wal-Mart's Global Sourcing group explained, the idea is to have "one huge buy" from apparel to food to general merchandise manufacturers. By joining the orders of every Wal-Mart division in every country, the company achieves massive economies of scale in its purchases.

In the coming years, Wal-Mart's challenge is to further consolidate its list of manufacturers in China. "Wal-Mart gets more control by keeping vendor list short, because the small number of vendors becomes more and more dependent on Wal-Mart as a customer," said Yuan. "They only use the top 1 percent of factories. Maybe top 50 factories in a given country. Wal-Mart has 60 percent of the largest factories in the world [working for them]."

But a more agile, transnational, "virtual" manufacturer is emerging to service the American mass retailer. Larry Harmer, CEO of Petters International, has never created a brand, run a research and development group, overseen the assembly of a product, or sold it on a store shelf.

He is a "brand distributor," a general contractor of sorts for consumer electronics, who develops a concept for a product -- a new kind of DVD player, for instance -- by licensing other people's design and technological innovations. When the prototype is ready, he licenses a familiar brand name, such as Polaroid, under which he sells his product. He and his team of fluent Mandarin speakers then head to China and turn to one of Wal-Mart's chosen Chinese manufacturers for production. Harmer said that Wal-Mart deals with only three or four DVD player factories worldwide -- all in China. Harmer's situation is typical: To sell to Wal-Mart, most brand distributors will be forced have their products made by Wal-Mart's anointed partners in China.

"The question is going to be whether the retailers and [Chinese] manufacturers will come together to squeeze money from the traditional brands," said Harmer. As long as he continues to bring Wal-Mart new concepts that sell, Harmer expects to survive, one year at a time.

Some retail analysts said that Wal-Mart's dwindling number of vendors will continue to abandon their factories in the American Midwest, as well as transfer production from their factories in Mexico and Taiwan to China. As this happens, massive Chinese conglomerates, such as the television manufacturer TCL, will dominate more and more of the market. And Wal-Mart will increasingly be forced to contend with muscle-flexing by its Chinese partners.

And so, there's a new wrinkle in the global game: China may not settle for second fiddle. Chinese manufacturers want to become equal partners with Wal-Mart, playing a role in product development, not just filling assembly orders. They, too, are becoming creative with the use of point-of-sale analysis to respond instantly to the demands of consumers and develop products they want.

"We are seeing an emerging shift in product development," said Tom Travis, a trade lawyer at Miami's Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, who counts Wal-Mart among his clients. Chinese manufacturers "are assuming much more of the functions, creating and designing … the product."

This could lead to what up until now, many would have considered an unthinkable scenario in which the manufacturing dominance of China subverts Wal-Mart's control of the supply chain.

Sam Hornblower is the production assistant for "Is Wal-Mart Good for America?"

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United Nations Mission to China - 2005

United Nations Report 2005

United Nations Mission to China - 2004

The United Nations Reports on China’s Persecution of Falun Gong (2004)

The United Nations Reports on China’s Persecution of Falun Gong (2000-2003)