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US House assails China over labor camps, products

The House of Representatives called for international condemnation of China's forced labor prison camps and urged President George W. Bush's government to implement laws barring the import of goods the camps produce.

In a resolution approved 413-1, the House on Friday deplored China's use of the so-called laogi camps. Lawmaker Christopher Smith this week likened the reported practice of harvesting organs from prisoners at the camps to "atrocities committed by the infamous Nazi, Dr. Josef Mengele."

China's human rights record has long been a source of international condemnation. US lawmakers seized on a recent report by the UN Human Rights Commission's special investigator on torture who visited China to underscore what they said was the communist nation's continued disregard for international human rights law.

The House resolution also called on the US government and the European Parliament to urge the introduction of a UN resolution condemning the laogi.

It also demanded that China disclose the number of prisoners held at the camps, how many had been executed and the list of goods produced at the factory camps using forced labor.

Recalling a visit to one of the prison camps in 1992, Smith said the "place reeked of cruelty and sadness and was a nightmarish insight into the dark soul of the Chinese communist dictatorship."

Lawmakers said the practice of forcing prisoners to produce goods was contributing to the wide US trade deficit with China. Representative Tom Lantos, senior Democrat on the House International Relations Committee, said such goods continue to be sold in the US by "some of America's largest retailers."

"When the history of communist rule in China will be written, maybe 50 years from now, China's laogi prison system will undoubtedly be treated as a tragic and despicable act perpetrated by the Chinese leadership upon the people of China," Lantos said.
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