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A 6-year-old Briton found the appeal for help from Shanghai jail detainees in a Chinese-made Christmas card, the Sunday Times reported on Sunday . Detainees claim to be subjected to forced labor. The Chinese government denied this Monday, December 23.
China denied on Monday all the claims discovered in the message of a Christmas card in a six-year-old Briton from south London. Beijing completely denies this " invented " information that the Quinqpu prison in Shanghai is practicing forced labor.
“ We are foreign prisoners in Qingpu Shanghai prison in China . Forced to work against our will. Please help us and tell a human rights organization , ”said the detainees' message discovered by little Florence Widdicombe.
" I can tell you that after research to clarify this story, Qinqpu Prison in Shanghai does not do forced labor for foreign prisoners ," said Geng Shuang, spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, .
Production stopped
It is the British supermarket chain Tesco which distributes the Christmas cards in question. It immediately withdrew them from sale and announced that it would halt production at its Chinese supplier's factory.
The card was produced at the Zheijiang Yunguang Printing factory, which was " independently checked " in November. " No evidence was found to suggest that they had broken our rule prohibiting prison labor, " said a Tesco spokesperson.
This story does not fit well with the image that the Qinqpu prison, which opened in 1994, is trying to convey. The establishment, which has 40 foreign prisoners, presents itself as " a legal platform for cultural exchanges " where the detainees receive " courses in law. , ethics, culture and manual work , "reads a prison brochure online.
" Contact Mr. Peter Humphrey "
According to the Sunday Times, the message found on the card also asked the person who found it to " contact Mr. Peter Humphrey ", a former British journalist arrested in China in the summer of 2013. Peter Humphrey was subsequently convicted , in August 2014 to two and a half years in prison for violations of Chinese privacy laws, while working for a British multinational.
He had served part of his sentence in Qingpu prison, before being released in 2015. He said he had transmitted the information of this mysterious message to the British weekly. According to him, the authors of this message are certainly prisoners of Qingpu who knew him before his release.
Peter Humphrey told the newspaper that he had contacted other ex-prisoners, one of whom told him that for at least two years detainees had made and wrapped greeting cards for Tesco.
Listen: China: two imprisoned lawyers' women tell their stories