One of the most notorious forced labor camps in China, Masanjia. (The Epoch Times)
CIPFG reports that there are nearly 300 labor camps in China, where torture, “re-education” (brainwashing), and forced labor take place. Tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners are said to be held there, and among them are those arrested in large purges that took place in the months before the Olympics.
The regime in China has been known to deny independent investigations of claims of torture and abuse in its labor camps, which people can be sentenced to without trial.
In the lead-up to the games, CIPFG released to journalists a guide to seven labor camps near the Olympics venues, titled “Torture Outside the Olympic Village: A Guide to China’s Labor Camps.” These camps held practitioners of Falun Gong, a spiritual practice that is heavily persecuted in China.
Sources reported that the Chinese regime relocated many of the Falun Gong practitioners in the camps to ones in other provinces, and put on show tours for foreign media.
Falun Gong has been persecuted since 1999 when the practice was outlawed after it grew to an estimated 80–100 million practitioners. Reports from human rights organizations document brutal persecution against practitioners, including rape, torture, and the harvesting of organs. The Chinese regime has not explained a surge of transplants done since 2001, including 40,000 transplants with donors unaccounted for.
