Is it real? Letter describes brutal conditions in Chinese labor camp
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PORTLAND, Ore. – Julie Keith is convinced the letter is real.
She discovered a handwritten letter describing brutal conditions at a Chinese labor camp inside a box of Halloween decorations sold in an American retail chain store.
Now she's working to draw attention to the plight of the Chinese workers but she's worried that the attention may lead to severe punishment for the person who wrote the letter or other forced laborers. But Keith said she can’t ignore what’s in the letter.
"It was just folded up into a little square, and I thought, 'Oh, what's this?'" she said Thursday.
As Keith would learn, the letter that fell from a box holding a 17-piece Totally Ghoul Graveyard Kit proved far more disturbing than the plastic tombstones the paper was sandwiched in between.
"Someone was desperate enough to risk their life to get this note in the package," she said.
In broken English and Chinese, the letter describes work life at the Masanjia forced labor camp in Shenyang, China as 15-hour workdays without weekends off.
Workers are paid the equivalent of $1.60 a month. And they're under constant threat of torture as punishment for not working.
"I Googled this labor camps and just some horrific, horrific photos and stories came up. It's a nightmare," Keith said.
The letter also says many of the workers making products like the graveyard set practice Falun Gong, a spiritual movement outlawed by the Chinese government.
"People need to know about this. It can't be kept secret," said Keith.
She said the box of Halloween decorations made in China for Kmart Corporation was wrapped in cellophane before she opened it, making it impossible, she said, for someone to slip the letter inside in America.
Kmart's parent company, Sears Holdings, responded to KATU’s questions in a written statement reading in part: "Although we found no evidence that production was subcontracted to a labor camp during a recent audit of the factory that produced the Halloween decoration, our investigation continues."
"If Kmart Corporation researches this and quits buying products from this labor camp, that will help – just any little thing will make a start," Keith said.
Homeland Security is investigating the authenticity of the letter. It's against federal law to import products manufactured through forced labor. It isn't discussing the case, but the criminal investigation focuses on the importer, not the seller in Kmart.
It's more likely that Kmart would take some action in China because for the Obama administration this is an international diplomacy issue and the big question is how cooperative the Chinese government would be.
Why do people think this is good grammar???!?!?! The letter is fraught with incorrect grammar, usage and spelling!! Jeez!
@DJ Parrish If it was written by someone in China they don't speak English, and you're criticizing their grammar and spelling? Really? Lets see you pen something in Chinese, just one word even.... I'll wait.
I had a pen pal in china, i remember him talking about labor camps. if the letter is real or not, its a fact that this sort of thing exist, not just in china, in many other places also... its sad..
Whats sad is, that if things dont pick up here, many of us might be applying for those jobs down the line
 @stinger139Â
Yep. That's where we are headed. We will soon have a society made up of the rich, a few poorly paid educators and gov bureaucrats - which they will call the middle class - and the majority at the bottom begging for min wage factory jobs so they can live 3 families to one high rent dwelling - owned by rich slumlords of course who snapped them up in foreclosure.
@ormom @stinger139 ... and we can thank the current adminstration for that.
I was born into an era that still had American made products. I have some of those products to this day and they are over 50 years old and still holding strong.They were hand me downs from my mother.Once upon a time here in the U.S, we had products that would last one a lifetime of use. Not anymore..Cheaply made products made overseas and sold here for outrageous prices.I miss the American made products of my youth.I can't even find a coffee maker made in this country.Things were made to last...lets bring that back to the American People
 @Whitehawk  You can thank the Reagan policies for that. I doubt the damage can ever be undone.
Saw this lady on the news last night. The note is obviously fake. Not sure what her agenda is, but she is manipulating the local media.
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Reminds me of when I used to travel to SE Asia. Remember all those morons protesting the Nike factories? Well the people on the ground in Nam told me over and over again that those are the best jobs in the country. Highest paying and best conditions. More American arrogance.
@ryanmang Just because the turd is less stinky doesn't mean we should ignore cleaning it up. Washington state has among the highest minimum wage and you still can't live on it. Not very well anyways. Tell me...when on the ground in Nam did you go into the factory surrounded by armed guards?
 @Jared  @ryanmang Not to mention that they may be some of the most favorable jobs over there but they fail miserably to meet any of the basic standards afforded to employees over here.  Like you say, it still smells...
 @ryanmangÂ
And Nike could have made them right here in the US too if they had spent less on advertising and endorsements and buildings dedicated to cheating athletes and taken less profit on each pair. More business arrogance.
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Just try finding anything for sale in the US that's NOT made in China... It's almost impossible. It's frustrating when you're at least peripherally aware of these kinds of labor practices overseas, or if you'd prefer to buy products (mostly) manufactured in the US. We just don't make stuff anymore. But the few things we DO make are far better quality than the Chinese junk that disintegrates under normal use. I make a habit of trying to buy US products even though they're more expensive.. They pay for themselves in the end by lasting longer. I avoid Chinese products like the plague because they produce junk at the expense of political prisoners (right before they harvest their kidneys). US workers and consumers have no idea how good we have it over here.Â
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China's prisons are almost as bad as the USA's.....
I used to put notes like that in food bags when I was working at Mcdonalds. No one came and helped me!
Americans love to get up in arms over stuff like this until they realize that improving the work conditions for offshore manufacturing up to the standards that we Americans have come to expect would skyrocket all their precious toy & electronic prices.
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They summarily shut up after that realization for a while until the next "Down with China!" news item.
@Scorcho Many Americans currently make a concious decision to purchase fair labor goods. Well...there goes your argument.
 @Jared  @Scorcho When we know which products are manufactured under fair labor policies.  There is no way to really know if they are or if they aren't.
 @ScorchoÂ
The NYT expose article on Apple iphones more or less forced the new Apple CEO to admit in an interview (on NBC a few weeks ago) that the iphone could be made in the US and sold for the same price. It's not about US wages being too high anymore - it's now about the supply chain being in place in Asia that makes manufacturing there necessary and more financially attractive. We have US business to largely thank for that shift in supply chain as well as the job loss. Guess who owns and controls the manufacturing supply chain now instead of the US? If you said Asia you'd be right. Foxconn, the biggest and most powerful electronics company no one heard of until the NYT article came out. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxconn
And we are surprised?  Oh come on... like this is something we did not already know.. China is a hell hole. What do you expect?
 @MrAchilles What bothers me is why do we keep buying their crap? Oh...because that is all that is available...
 @froggy alley  @MrAchilles And because that's all that we can afford.
That hanji (Chinese writing) is pretty impressive. If this is true, do we (America) send back the money that China loaned to us? This is a huge economic issue. China has much to answer for. And America needs to get off its high-horse and start doing something good.Â
This sort of thing has come to light before:
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"When I was back in my private equity days, we went to China to buy a factory there. It employed about 20,000 people. And they were almost all young women between the ages of about 18 and 22 or 23.... And they work in these huge factories... as we were walking through this facility, seeing them work, the number of hours they worked per day, the pittance they earned, living in dormitories with uh, with little bathrooms... they have 12 girls per room. Three bunk beds on top of each other. You've seen, you've seen them? (Oh...yeah, yeah!) And, and, and around this factory was a fence, a huge fence with barbed wire and guard towers. And, and, we said gosh! I can't believe that you, you know, keep these girls in! They said, no, no, no. This is to keep other people from coming in."
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That's clearly what this note is - an attempt to discourage people from trying to steal jobs at the Mashanjia labor camp.
@Max Quinn And don't forget the suicide nets at the apple factory!
This is a huge crock. Think about it. They're worked half to death, all they're allowed to do is work, much less stop to have a lunch or potty break. They're probably watched a la Big Brother...Yet...YET!! You have someone with enough time to put together this letter and sneak it into a package of Halloween decorations. Biggest of all?!??!??? You have someone who not only can WRITE in English...but has a good command of our language. This is a huge hoax...and it's no wonder the "authorities" aren't taking too much stock in it. Now for some Chinese food :)
@fracas You don't really need much time to write a note. Or hide it. Does it take a three hour chunk of your day to write a note?
And people here complain about our government...bunch of spoiled rotten psyche cases if you ask me, we should count our blessings.
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On a side note, my ex wife used to work at a Cross Pen plant, her and her friend would put notes under the inserts all the time.
@deejm2112 Tired of this argument. Just because someone has it worse doesn't mean I should stop fighting for myself.
It seems like the people who wrote the letter knew how to appeal to Americans. They know most of us get Saturday and Sunday off and Holidays for example. If it were authentic, it would have been a simple plea for help. We get too worked up over here assuming people know what they are missing. If people in China were really stuck under these conditions, I doubt they would even know the difference. This would be their way of life. Their way of surviving. Any letter they would risk their life to send would likely simply say "help" or something like that. Not a detailed complaint about having to work 15 hour days with no breaks. We are so spoiled over here. American Farmers work those hours too! If this abuse is true, then I do feel bad for them, but I am having trouble believing it because the person knew exactly what to say to appeal to the average American.
@kumitekat What good would writing help do? Just because they are a different nationality doesn't mean they don't know how to appeal to human emotion. Plus, if you got a letter that simply said help, where exactly would you start the search? Use your brain.
 @kumitekat Oh, I don't doubt what was said in the letter.  The information seems correct based on the past history of the country and, specifically, their treatment of the Falun Gong in 1999 and going forward.  Amnesty International has been closely following the persecution of Chinese people for years.  If this letter can be tied back to a specific work crew (and they are still in work camps), I wouldn't be surprised if the original writer (or someone they think IS the writer) is severely tortured or murdered to make an example to the others.
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Some of the more rural Chinese probably don't know too much about our way of life but most do. Â They get to see (censored) movies and books over there. Â They understand what our culture is about.
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I hope you realize that these Chinese labor camps exist and their main purpose is to work (or torture) you to death. Â The US has tried a few (weak) diplomatic investigations and conversations but this hasn't helped.Â
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We know nothing of the "writer". Â As I said, I believe what is written to be truthful but the letter needs authentication and, sadly, that process will more than likely get many workers seriously injured or killed just for the investigation. Â The pressure to get the "prisoner" to tell the truth is often extended outside of the camp to the "prisoner's" family and close friends.
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For more information, check out the site Amnesty International has devoted solely to the Chinese region: Â http://www.amnesty.org/en/region/china.
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How much money does the U.S. owe China? Roughly 2 1/2 Trillion? Is that why our Government does nothing about the forced labor camps in China? Are we to believe that they are surprised about them and don't know that a lot of our imported products are made in forced labor camps? I do not believe we are as stupid as our Government thinks us average citizens to be.
Falun Gong, however, is a Buddist/Taoist type of religion (i.e., false) - but freedon of religion as we know it does not exist in China!
I have no doubt that it is real - most people don't know what goes on in China,and a lot of us don't care! Christians are severely persecuted, pastors are killed or hauled off to jail (not prison camps like this one), Bibles and hymnbooks confiscated and burned. I know, I have a cousin that is over there right now. But our government doesn't do anything about it, because they have no "proof".
 @musicloverÂ
Our current government wouldn't do anything about it even if they had solid proof. They want to destroy Christianity right here - it's socialism's greatest enemy after all - so why worry about China, or Pakistan, or the middle east, or...
I was there six years ago. The Chinese Government allows what they call "religious freedom," as long as it's at one of the four state sanctioned churches. I taught english at a school/orphanage/factory about an hour from Beijing. During the day, the factory produced items for gift shops. At night, they pumped out as many chinese language bibles as they could, and then smuggled them to underground Christian churches. This place had been raided two years prior, and the missionaries were detained, separated, and interrogated. We got to visit with a man named Moses Xie, who is nicknamed "The Jesus of Beijing." He was released from prison after spending 24 years for evangelizing. All he had to do to get out, was to sign a paper renouncing Jesus, and promise not to evangelize any longer. He refused. He served as an example of Faith, Strength, and refused to bow down to the Chinese government.
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From there, we went by train to Tiyuan (a major coal hub..one of the dirtiest places I've ever seen) and then by bus to a small town in the Shanxi Province called Feng Cun. We worked at a school that served several poor farming villages, where many residents lived in dug-out caves, with mis-matched stone, glass and wood fronts. They used coal burning stoves to cook and for heat. They still used ox carts, although some people had tri wheel carts with old briggs & stratton type flywheel motors. The school is a beacon for the area families, and the biggest day in those families' lives is when one of their children gets their uniform, and is entered into school there.
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We did a medical/dental mission for a couple of weeks there. I taught english and coached basketball. It was a great experience. What it really taught me was to appreciate how good we have it here in America. Every American should spend at least a week in the Third World. We have collectively become so soft and so spoiled here. We take way too much for granted.
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That school, btw..had all kinds of roadblocks thrown in front of it from the Chinese Government, because they knew it was an evangelical Christian group operating it. Today, their students are testing amongst the highest in their age groups in the entire country, and educators from all over are going there to study the template, so they can model it for schools being built in other parts of rural China. Now provincial government leaders are trying to send their children there, but they are being denied, because it is supposed to be for the local villagers only. At least that is how is was six years ago. Interesting experience. Standing on the Great Wall was..well..there are no words to describe that feeling.
Oregon Live posted this on the 23rd, so now KATU picks it up as news? http://www.oregonlive.com/happy-valley/index.ssf/2012/12/halloween_decorations_carry_ha.htmlÂ
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Where is the follow up for the real story? Â
 @Benjamin Schniffle That's what I was hoping for when I first heard about the story.  I had hoped this story would include a follow up.
It is hard to determine truth, but if determined true, then Kmart may have some explaining to do, perhaps it is time to cease all products that come in from China and time to perhaps start making American made things. I had a blow up Santa, it was made in China, It blew apart yesterday. It's coming apart was well heard in our living room. Personally I think it is time for America to start making things. It is time that we make our own goods.
 @lee986321Â
There is something we can all do immediately to help the problem and our own wallets. We can stop being such good little consumers of cheap and frivolous imported crap. Buy less but save up and buy quality that lasts. It's a much better deal in the long run.
 @lee986321 Yeah, because K-mart is the ONLY one importing things from China....Lee, you are so brilliant!
 @lee986321 I agree. This is the biggest reason why Germany is not being hit hard like the other EU countries in this financial crisis; they kept manufacturing in their own country.
Ok, without asserting whether this letter is real or not, the problem is very real. Perhaps it was fabricated to increase visibility? Either way, here's an article about this facility that pre-dates this story by a year and a half...
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http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/china-news/petitioners-reveal-brutalities-in-masanjia-forced-labor-camp-38085.html
 @badcat Horrific.
Do you really think a chinese factory worker can read/write and or speak in both chinese and english? NO WAY, these are villagers, barely educated, and would doubtfully be able to string together a sentence on paper in another language.
 @SR Actually almost all schools in china teach english.
 @B Smizzle  @SR Most villagers that do factory work do not go to school.
 @SR I know for a fact they like to put cuss words on Magna Doodles...
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But, yes, Badcat is right. Â Political prisoners are often the equivalent of teachers, professors, doctors, lawyers, politicians, religious leaders, millionaire business owners and on and on. Â They are often the most highly educated among their communities. Â I find the sentence structure and grammar actually quite possible and certainly worth looking into.
 @CTWU  @SR As much as I dislike badcat, I have to agree with this what they are saying.
 @CTWU  @SR And don't go rolling over dead on me badcat..jsut because I agree doesn't mean you have to keeling over.
 @SR Actually, if it's one of their "re-education through labor" camps, this person could be a highly educated political prisoner. Hence "forced labor" as opposed to "sweat shop". I'm not saying that it's genuine, I'm just saying that your assumption is wrong.
Your knowledge about "over there" is so amazing; mostly Americans don't know much about that. As a Vietnam POW, I spend 9 years, 11 months and 3 weeks (minus 11 month 1 week in insolated room) in labor camps. There were two kinds of labors in camps, one called worker with salary 30 Dongs/month (200 Dongs=$1.00), one called re-educated student, or POW without salary, I was one of the seconds. Though we slept in different section, we worked the same and ate the same. I had two year attended universities there before the war ended, so I knew some English like the one wrote that letter.
I personally thank your for your knowledge about things "over there", that I myself don't want to digged deeper.
to dig deeper, ;) , oviously, I am not a so good American.