The Briton who made public a message in a Christmas card claiming to be from Chinese prisoners involved in forced labor yesterday dismissed Beijing’s denial as “lies.”
Peter Humphrey, a former fraud investigator and journalist, wrote an article about the note allegedly penned by foreign inmates in Shanghai’s Qingpu prison — where he himself was once held.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Geng Shuang (耿爽) denied there was any forced labor by foreign convicts at Qingpu and accused Humphrey of inventing a “farce” to “hype himself up.”
Photo: AP
“I can tell you responsibly that, after seeking clarification from relevant departments, Shanghai Qingpu prison does not at all have ... forced labor by foreign convicts,” Geng said at a regular press briefing in Beijing.
Asked about the issue, Humphrey, who is now based in Britain, said: “It’s the kind of answer they have given to every allegation of human rights abuses that is ever mentioned.”
“This is really completely to be expected, because nothing except lies ever comes back to the world when any such issue arises,” he said.
The note was found by a London schoolgirl in a Christmas card sold by supermarket giant Tesco, and claimed to be from foreign prisoners in Qingpu “forced to work against our will.”
Tesco expressed shock at the revelation and announced it was stopping the sale of the cards and ceasing production at the Chinese factory involved while it investigated.
The note asked whoever received it to contact Humphrey, who spent nine months in Qingpu during almost two years in custody in China for illegally obtaining personal information — charges he dismissed as “bogus.”
Humphrey said he had never met the girl or her family, but when they got in touch and showed him a copy of the note, “I absolutely knew it was true, in my gut, because I know the handwriting.”
He would not name the author for fear of repercussions, but said it was not the first time prisoners in China had got a message out this way.
“It’s too dangerous for them to use correspondence, phone calls or consular meetings” to raise concerns about conditions, he said.
Humphrey said he did not hold Tesco responsible, if it were found to have used prison labor.
“China makes it impossible for a company to drill down right to the bottom of the supply chain to identify the small contractors,” he said.
He added that he believed the prisoners involved were working against their will.
“They don’t mean that they are chained to a factory table and whipped. What they mean is that they have been put in a position where they are coerced,” he said.
CONSOLIDATION? Taiwan Thinktank deputy executive-general Doong Sy-chi said Beijing’s intimidation tactics are further alienating those who identify as Chinese Only 2 percent of respondents to a poll on constitutional amendments and national identity identified as Chinese, while 62.6 percent identified as Taiwanese, the Taiwan Thinktank said yesterday. Legislators have proposed amendments to the Additional Articles of the Constitution (憲法增修條文), which would change the definition of the nation’s territory, remove the Taiwan Provincial Government as an entity, prioritize the use of “Taiwan” for national groups at international events, and remove restrictions on defining the national emblem, national flag and national anthem. The poll showed that 80.5 percent of respondents agreed that the nation should participate as “Taiwan” at events organized by world
NO SIGN OF WAR: Only if Taiwanese showed determination to defend the nation would others be willing to help in the event of a Chinese attack, the premier said Should China launch a war against Taiwan, the military would fight to the last standing person, Minister of National Defense Yen De-fa (嚴德發) said yesterday, adding that the nation has fully fleshed-out defense strategies. “Beijing has continued its acts of provocation against Taiwan, but there are currently no signs that it is ready to launch a full-scale war,” Yen said at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. Asked how long Taiwan could withstand an attack from China, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said: “Taiwan will not fall.” Any belligerent force that initiates acts of war would pay a heavy price, and so too would Beijing,
MISTAKE: The Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy is not a UN body, and the government is committed to protecting the nation’s name, Joseph Wu said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday condemned the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy for listing Taiwanese cities as belonging to China on its Web site, and asked that it correct the error. The organization was inaugurated in Brussels in 2016 as a global coalition of mayors committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Six Taiwanese cities at the time joined the coalition as cities in “Taiwan,” the ministry said. However, officials from the Kaohsiung City Government — one of the organization’s members — last week noticed that the city was now listed on the organization’s Web site as a
MOTHERLAND? Taiwanese who take part in China’s National Day celebrations could be fined NT$100,000 to NT$500,000 if found to have contravened Taiwanese laws The Ministry of Culture yesterday cautioned China-based Taiwanese artists against breaching Taiwanese law by taking part in China’s National Day celebrations. The ministry issued the statement following media reports that Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜) is to sing a popular Chinese patriotic song titled My Motherland (我的祖國), and Angela Chang (張韶涵) is to sing Protect (守護) with Chinese entertainers at an event to mark China’s National Day on Thursday. The Mainland Affairs Council is investigating whether such behavior contravenes regulations in the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the ministry said. If the behavior involves matters
RSS