VZCZCXRO0991
RR RUEHCN RUEHGH RUEHVC
DE RUEHBJ #1322/01 0600207
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 010207Z MAR 07
FM AMEMBASSY BEIJING
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5120
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUEHUL/AMEMBASSY SEOUL 9893
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 1168
RHEFHLC/DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY WASHINGTON DC
RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 1644
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BEIJING 001322 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR USTR-KARESH, ROSENBERG, STRATFORD, CELICO 
JUSTICE FOR INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS - KYLE LATIMER 
JUSTICE FOR OPDAT - CHRISTOPHER LEHMAN AND MICHELLE CRAWFORD 
DHS FOR IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT 
COMMERCE FOR 4420/ITA/MAC/MCQUEEN AND DAS KASOFF 
LABOR FOR OSEC AND ILAB 
TREASURY FOR OASIA/ISA-CUSHMAN 
GENEVA FOR CHAMBERLIN 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/05/2032 
TAGS: PHUM KJUS ELAB PGOV ETRD CH
SUBJECT: TWO FORMER PRISONERS DESCRIBE PRISON LABOR 
CONDITIONS 
 
Classified By: Econmincouns Robert Luke, reason 1.4(b/d) 
 
¶1.  (C)  Summary: Two former prison inmates recently 
discussed their prison labor experiences with Laboff. 
Although at completely different prisons, their accounts were 
similar.  Both reported that labor was involuntary, and 
consisted of light industrial work for private companies that 
made outsourcing arrangements with the prison. Although the 
private companies paid the prisons for labor, the amounts 
were below local minimum wage standards, and little or none 
of the money went to the inmates.  Both prisoners described 
prison and working conditions as poor, unsanitary and 
abusive.  Most of the facilities in which these two prisoners 
served time required prisoners to work longer hours than 
permitted by Chinese overtime laws.  One of the former 
prisoners described packaging some goods for export, but saw 
now evidence of goods being made for export to the United 
States.  End summary. 
 
¶2.  (C)  Two former Chinese prison inmates described working 
conditions in their respective prison facilities in separate 
meetings with Laboff.  Both former prisoners are contacts of 
Embassy's human rights officers, who have followed their 
cases since their arrests.  Both were released in 2006, and 
agreed to Laboff's request to discuss prison labor 
conditions.  Ms. Zheng Mingfeng, who was arrested in 2003 for 
her involvement in protests over land confiscations, was 
released in January 2006 and met with Laboff on December 19, 
¶2006.  She was incarcerated from October 2003 to September 
2006 in three correctional facilities in Tianjin, including 
the Tianjin Municipal No. 1 Detention Center, the Tianjin Ji 
County Detention Center, and the Tianjin Women,s Prison.  Xu 
Yonghai, arrested for his efforts to publicize abuses of 
religious rights in Hangzhou in 2003, met with Laboff on 
January 23, 2007.  Xu was incarcerated from October 2003 to 
January 2006 at three sites, first a detention center in 
Beijing, then the Hangzhou Xiaoshan District detention 
center, and finally at the Hangzhou Xijiao prison.  Both 
Zheng and Xu served their sentences in standard correctional 
facilities with common criminals, not in reeducation through 
labor (RTL) facilities.  There are strong similarities 
between their accounts of prison life and prison labor 
conditions. 
 
Involuntary Labor, Negligible Compensation 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶3.  (C)  Zheng said she performed involuntary, uncompensated 
labor in all three facilities in which she was incarcerated. 
Zheng reported that workers were unpaid, workplaces were 
unsanitary (even when used for handling food or medical 
supplies), that ill prisoners were required to work, and that 
prisoners, families were charged for any materials the 
prisoners damaged during their work.  Zheng said prisons made 
outsourcing arrangements with local private businesses, which 
would set up workshops on site.  She reported that these 
businesses paid the prison 400 RMB per month for each prison 
laborer, none of which was given to the prisoner.  (The 
current minimum wage in Tianjin is RMB 670 per month). 
Though she did receive occasional small cash stipends from 
the prison, Zheng said she mainly depended on cash from her 
family to pay for basic necessities like toothpaste and 
toilet paper, and that prices in the prison were far higher 
than on the outside.  She said when prisoners were 
transferred from one prison to another, the receiving prison 
paid the sending prison RMB 800 (US$ 100) &per head.8 
 
¶4.  (C)  Xu said he performed involuntary labor at both the 
detention center and prison in Hangzhou.  Xu spent most of 
his sentence sewing umbrellas together, and said he learned 
that the prison received RMB 0.40 per umbrella (0.5 US cents 
-- $3.00 at 60 umbrellas per day).  This money was not 
distributed to workers, but workers did receive between 10-50 
RMB (US$ 1.30 -6.50) per month to purchase basic necessities 
 
BEIJING 00001322  002 OF 003 
 
 
like toothpaste and toilet paper.  (The current minimum wage 
in Hangzhou is RMB 650 per month, although some districts are 
free to set their own, lower standards.)  Prices of goods in 
prison, he said, were roughly the same as outside.  All 
prisoners were required to work, Xu said, and those who were 
too sick to work only received 7 RMB (less than US$ 1) per 
month.  Workers were "fined" RMB 5 if they damaged an 
umbrella.  If prisoners families could not pay, the prisoner 
would be beaten. 
 
The work they did 
----------------- 
 
¶5.  (C)  Zheng said the types of work she did varied, 
including making artificial flowers (Zheng claimed that all 
fake flowers in China are made in prisons), making baskets 
for use in aquiculture, packaging ointments and skin 
plasters, packaging foodstuffs (melon seeds, chocolate bars, 
powdered milk), condoms and crayons, and sewing and packaging 
sweaters, coats and western-style suits.  Zheng believes some 
goods produced at the Tianjin Municipal No. 1 Detention 
Center were meant for export, but she did not know of any 
exports to the United States   Zheng said milk powder 
packaged as "Nestle" and "Yi Li" (a well-known Chinese brand) 
products were packed for export to South Africa, Paraguay and 
Uruguay.   At one point her prison manufactured "Crocodile of 
Italy" sweaters for export to Korea (labeled in Korean).  She 
described packaging ointments and skin plasters in boxes 
listing their place of manufacture as Japan.  She said the 
prison packaged the same ointments and skin plasters under 
several different brands.  Manufacturing addresses on some of 
the medicine packages said Tianjin Municipality Century 
Biological Products LLC. 
 
¶6.  (C)  Xu reported that both the detention center and the 
prison in Hangzhou contracted work for the same company, the 
Tian Tang (heaven) Umbrella Company, which makes umbrellas 
under the Tian Tang, Su Hang (Suzhou-Hangzhou) and Pingguo 
(Apple) brands.  Xu said most of the work he did was sewing 
umbrella cloth to umbrella frames.  Other prison workshops 
made the umbrella frame components, and also did some work on 
raincoats for the same company.  Some prisoners did 
processing work on sweaters.  One of the detention centers 
made Christmas lights (brand unknown).  Xu did not know 
whether the umbrellas were exported or not, and did not 
recall seeing "made in China" labels. 
 
Work and prison conditions 
-------------------------- 
 
¶7.  (C)  Zheng complained of long hours at both the detention 
center and prisons in Tianjin.  She said prisoners typically 
worked from 6:00 a.m. until their daily production quotas 
were completed, often 1:00 or 2:00 am the following day.  Xu 
said prisoners at the Hangzhou Xiaoshan District Detention 
Center worked in the same cells they slept in.  They got up 
at 6:00 a.m. and began work at 6:15 a.m.  Working hours 
lasted until 7-8 pm, with only a few short breaks to eat. 
Work was seven days a week.  (Chinese overtime rules limit 
overtime work to a total of 36 hours per month).  Conditions 
at the Hangzhou Prison were better, Xu said.  Prisoners there 
worked from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and worked in a designated 
workshop.  Work there was five days a week, but Xu said 
workers had a production quota, and if they did not finish 
it, they had to work on Saturday and/or Sunday.  Xu described 
the production quota as achievable once workers became 
skilled at their jobs, but not easy.  Xu said that on rare 
occasions there would be no work to do. 
 
¶8.  (C)  Both Zheng and Xu reported that prisoners were 
supervised by other prisoners.  Zheng claimed that prison 
shop managers paid bribes to the prison authorities in order 
to get their privileged positions.  Xu described his prison 
supervisors as "prisoners who were hooligans on the outside," 
 
BEIJING 00001322  003 OF 003 
 
 
chosen because they were willing to beat prisoners who did 
not work, did not meet production quotas, or damaged 
materials and could not pay for them.  He said there were 
also one or two technical supervisors from the umbrella 
factory at the prison every day, mainly there to teach new 
inmates.   Xu said there was a clinic at the prison where 
workers could get reatment if injured.  It was very common 
for workers to jab or cut themselves.  Workers did not get 
thimbles, eye protection, or other safety equipment. 
 
¶9.  (C)  On prison conditions in general, Zheng said they 
were "not fit for dogs or pigs."  At one facility, she 
claimed, inmates were fed cornbread made from cornmeal 
provided by a local pharmaceutical plant after the vitamins 
and starch had been extracted for sale.  Families of 
prisoners were required to pay a one time fee of 550 RMB for 
food and daily necessities regardless of the prisoner's 
length of internment. Xu said food at the Hangzhou detention 
center was very basic and unsanitary, and there was not 
enough of it.  At the Hangzhou Prison, he said, food was 
better, but still consisted of mainly boiled cabbage, and 
cornbread made from very old cornmeal.  The prison only 
served meat a few times a year, such as national holidays, he 
said. 
 
¶10.  (C)  Xu told Laboff it is good for prisoners to work to 
give them something to do, but that prisoners should not be 
exploited, or be used to undercut the price of labor on the 
outside.  He also said his duties at the prison were lighter 
than those of other prisoners, which he attributed to the 
attention he received from the USG as a human rights interest 
case. 
RANDT