It’s hard to see the “reeducation through labor” prisons in the People’s Republic of China and not see slavery. These laogai prisons not only detain people — including prisoners of conscience, including in Falun Gong and Christian believers — but then sell their products overseas. So some of those cheap Chinese goods come not simply from an artificially depressed Chinese currency and at the expense of Chinese workers, but from real, live modern slave labor. The EU has no effective law, and the US is toothless.
A documentary on Al-Jazeera — a part of their Slavery: A 21st Century Evil series(watch it online) — brings it home. Or if you’re in Washington, D.C. you can visit the Laogai Museum and see more yourself. I’ve been — it’s north of Dupont Circle — and is worth the visit.
Laogai Museum
1734 20th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009
Perhaps instead of “Black Friday”/Buy Nothing Day?
It’s slavery. Don’t forget North Korea either. It’s even worse.
Ahh Bill, but to the best of my knowledge we in the US do not consume products produced in North Korea. This does not diminish the evils of North Korean slave labor. But our consuming the fruits of Chinese slavery seems to me the more scandalous and hyprocritical of our sins.