FAITH & FREEDOM OF BELIEF-2019

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RED FLAGS: WHEN THE FAITHFUL FACE ABUSEBloodstained Toy Horses: Slave Laborof Prisoners of Conscience in ChinaBy Massimo IntrovigneMy children, and now my grandchildren,love toy horses, perhaps because myown mother excelled in equestriansports. When I was a child, my toy horses weremade in Italy. Now, they are made in China.There are some, of high quality, manufacturedin Europe, but buying such expensive toys forsmall children seems extravagant. Yet, mydecision is made. This coming Christmas I willbuy European toy horses for my grandchildrenand persuade them to get rid of the cheaperChinese ones.I don’t do this to protect the Europeaneconomy against Chinese unfair competition.For me, it is a question of human rights andreligious liberty. I am a scholar of religionin China, and one increasingly worried byPresident Xi Jinping’s crackdown on all religions.I gathered documents about many stories ofpersecution. One concerns toy horses.Several million religious believers have beenarrested and are detained in different kind ofre-education camps or jails in China. More thanthree million are Uyghurs and other Muslims.Others are Tibetan Buddhists, dissidentCatholics, house church Protestants, membersof Falun Gong and of other banned religiousmovements. The single most persecuted grouptoday is a Christian new religious movementknown as The Church of Almighty God (CAG).More than 400,000 CAG members have beenarrested due to their faith, and hundreds ofcases of torture and extra-judicial killing havebeen documented and mentioned in officialdocuments of the United Nations, the U.S. StateDepartment, and other international bodies.One such victim was a woman fromShandong Province called Liu Jixia. She was42 when she was arrested for her missionaryactivities on behalf of the CAG. In 2007, shewas sentenced to serve eighteen months inthe Ji’nan “re-education through labor” camp.There, she was compelled to make toy horses.MassimoIntrovigneSociologist andEditor-in-chief of“Bitter Winter”, adaily magazine onReligious Liberty inChina.She had to work for 17 hours every day, thenfor 20 hours when production needed tobe increased. The camp diet was very poor,consisting only of cornmeal and pickles.After a few months, Liu developed asevere case of nephritis, due to overworkand malnutrition. She reported to the camp’smedical personnel but was told she was notsick enough to stop working, and toy horsesneeded to be produced. When she was releasedin 2009, her nephritis had become chronical.Visits and harassment by the police added toher stress. She went from hospital to hospital,but her condition did not improve. On August20, 2012, Liu died at the First People’s Hospitalin Linqing, Shandong.Her case is not isolated. In May 2003,another CAG member, Ms. Deng Xiufen, fromZhejiang Province, had died at age 35 in theMoganshan Labor Re-education Camp inWukang Town, Huzhou City, Zhejiang, whereshe was compelled to work as a seamstress.Malnutrition and overwork caused her death,together with abuse by the guards. Members ofthe CAG and other banned religious groups inre-education camps are forced to have yellowcard bearing the words “Special DisciplinaryControl” hung on their chest and are singledout for abuse.On March 9, 2015, Ms. Wang Honli wassentenced to five years in a jail in Yunnanfor having been active in the CAG. She wascompelled to stitch hems and pack up jeansand assigned quotas. These kept her busy untillate evening, and when she could not fulfill herquotas she was punished with extra work. InMay 2017, her family visited her and reportedthat her weight had fallen from 55 to just 32 kg.On October 1, 2017, she died in jail.In these cases, all duly documented, slavelabor led to death. I have personally intervieweddozens of CAG members who survived and38 2019 | OUR WORLD
FAITH & RELIGIOUS FREEDOMSHUTTERSTOCKescaped abroad, but whose health was seriously compromisedby years of slave labor in the camps. While I have researchedmostly CAG cases, for a book I published on the subject, thereare similar horrific (horror?) stories of slave labor about Uyghurs,Falun Gong practitioners, and others.All this raises serious ethical and political problems forgovernments, the business community, and consumers indemocratic countries. Our shops and homes are full of productsmade in China. How many of them come from the slave laborof prisoners sentenced for their religious beliefs? Is the blood ofSister Liu Jixia and her fellow prisoners of conscience in the Ji’nancamp on the toy horses my grandchildren play with?In August 2019, the NGO Citizen Power Initiatives for Chinapublished a detailed report, Cotton: A Fabric Full of Lies. Thereport revealed that Xinjiang has been transformed into thelargest cotton production area in China, something it was notbefore. The reason for this development is the slave labor of morethan three million Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, and other Muslimsdetained in the dreaded Xinjiang’s transformation througheducation camps – where not all inmates are Muslim since CAGmembers are forced to work and be “re-educated” there too.Because of the report, legislation was introduced in the U.S.preventing American companies from importing or purchasingproducts manufactured in Chinese labor camps and jails. Europeshould follow suit.OUR WORLD | 2019In these cases, all dullydocumented, slave labor ledto death. I have personallyinterviewed dozens of CAGmembers who survived andescaped abroad, but whosewas seriously compromisedby years of slave labor inthe camps.39
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FAITH & FREEDOM OF BELIEF-2019

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