(Clearwisdom.net) On June 24, 2005, the Japanese Yahoo News Network reprinted a news item from the Japanese newspaper, Sankei Shimbun. The original title of the report was, "Forced Labor in China, there are 400,000 people including religious prisoners, of which 60,000 are 'Falun Gong.' " The original article especially gave prominence to the severe persecution of Falun Gong, and the Japanese media and community have begun paying attention to the persecution of Falun Gong in China.

A journalist from the Sankei Shimbun in Washington reported that the American Congress and the U.S. Federal government jointly formed an organization for studying and consulting about China - the "Congressional-Executive Commission on China." The organization held a public hearing on June 22 entitled, "China's Forced Labor Education." Several renowned human rights activists from China said in their speeches that 400,000 people, including political prisoners and religious prisoners in China, are forced to work, under the pretext of receiving re-education through labor.

At the public hearing, human rights activist Wu Hongda, who has been detained and "re-educated" through labor for 19 years for protesting against the Chinese Communist Party in China, and later came to the U.S. in the 1980s, gave testimony to the above-mentioned facts. He represented the Lao Gai Foundation for investigating and studying the issues related to the CCP's forced labor system.

Wu said in his report that in China, in more than 1,000 prisons (labor camps), about 400,000 people are imprisoned and receive re-education through labor, where they are forced to work. Most of these people are political prisoners, prisoners of conscience and religious prisoners who oppose the CCP, and citizens who protest the CCP forcibly dismantling their houses. In addition, the number of prisoners who violate general criminal offenses is increasing. Among 400,000 prisoners, 60,000 are Falun Gong practitioners. The CCP's suppression of Falun Gong is still ongoing. At over 1,000 labor camps and prisons, regardless of whether the detainees want to or not, they are forced to work as unpaid labor. The prisons increase their incomes by engaging in production activities for a large number of enterprises.

Though forcing detainees to work has been prohibited by international convention, and although the CCP co-signed the memorandum with the US. in 1991 on not exporting products made in prisons, Mr. Wu said that the prisons force the detainees to make clothes, automobile parts, trucks, pencils and tea, and many other products. These are exported in large quantities to the U.S., Japan and Europe.

At the hearing, Minister of Commerce from the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), and Chinese issues expert Jeffery Field also testified that although the CCP signed the memorandum with the U.S. pledging not to export products made by forced labor, not only is the export of such products still continuing, China also encourages foreign enterprises to invest in and provide technology to production related to forced labor. Field also said in his speech that the U.S. has also not taken seriously the issue of banning products illegally made through forced labor in China from entering the American market.