Imagine you’re in prison.
Perhaps you hung out drunk in a cemetery to yell “woo” at unsuspecting mourners or
attacked the pizza guy over forgotten garlic bread.
Perhaps you agreed to look after your neighbor’s pet tarantula but then grew too attached to
it and refused to return it, threatening said neighbor with bodily injury.
People really have been arrested for these things and now imagine that in prison you
work a job for 20 cents an hour.
This is the going rate labor for US prisons and it’s even lower in Chinese Prisons.
Today we investigate one such Chinese prison and the story of how a note from a Chinese
Prisoner ended up in a Walmart Purse.
Walmart.
If you’re like most Americans, then at one point or another you’ve shopped here.
It is, after all, the world’s largest retailer.
It has almost 12,000 retail units throughout 27 countries as of October of 2018.
Though obviously well-known, Walmart has had their share of good and bad publicity.
On the plus side, it has a wide selection of merchandise including food, appliances,
games, apparel and furniture, all at competitive prices.
On the negative, it has been accused multiple times of supporting forced labor and of incorrectly
labeling its merchandise made in other locations as having been produced locally.
As Christel Wallace, a resident of Arizona would discover, not all of these claims against
Walmart are mere rumor or speculation.
There appears to be evidence that it really does make use of foreign prisoner labor where
the workers face terrible conditions.
But how did a shopper in the southwestern US end up with inside information on the working
conditions of prisoners in such a far off location?
It all began in March of 2017.
A few months prior Christel had purchased a maroon purse with shiny accented detailing
from a local Walmart.
However, it wasn’t until March when she finally opened up a pocket to place a key
inside and found that surprisingly, it wasn’t empty.
Inside was a small, two-inch square of paper.
Assuming it was unimportant, she threw it in the trash can.
However, something stopped her from just walking away and she fished it back out again.
She opened the paper and saw East Asian writing; however, she had no idea what it meant.
It was her daughter-in-law who determined it was Chinese and posted a picture of the
note on Facebook.
Friends helped translate it.
The author of the note claimed to be a laborer from a prison in China.
He explained what he and those who worked with him were subjected to on a daily basis
while manufacturing goods for Walmart, and the conditions he described were terrible.
Work spanned fourteen hours a day and didn’t end until midnight.
Those who failed to reach their production quotas were beaten or denied food.
Pay was minimal and fees for medicine were deducted from their wages.
He then gave examples of what they were treated like: horses, cows, pigs, goats, or dogs.
In other words, like animals, not humans.
The note went viral on social media, and while people were outraged, it didn’t look like
it would inspire any real change, because ultimately, it is a problem without an easy
solution.
For one, there always has been and always will be a market for the cheap goods.
Walmart has tried to promote more American made items through a program called “Bring
it Home to the USA” as far back as 1985, and though President Bill Clinton hailed it
as highly patriotic it still failed to take off and was discontinued.
The reason is failed is likely very simple.
Ask yourself the following and answer honestly.
Say you are a US resident and find an American made pair of pants on sale for $85.
You look right next to it and see a foreign pair with a price tag for $50.
You like them both the same.
Which are you buying?
If you’re like 67% of the others asked this question, you would choose the cheaper foreign
item.
Now ask yourself another question: would you even check to see where it was made at all?
How much does it matter to you?
While some love the idea of buying locally, few actually do it when push comes to shove.
Others may find that where an item was made is not something that they are even consciously
aware of.
But for almost everyone, price is something they notice.
So there is a high demand for Chinese prisoner employment.
After all, cheap prices attract buyers.
Buyers bring profit.
Profit impacts the bottom line.
Beyond this, there is also the problem of even knowing how to begin changing things.
After all, the whole process of how goods are first made in prisons and then wind up
for sale elsewhere around the world is highly complex chain and shrouded in mystery.
It turns out the routes are goods take are often virtually untraceable and are neither
short nor straightforward.
To make matters worse, there is generally a lack of communication between many of the
involved parties so even those who are a part of the chain may be out of the loop when it
comes to the details.
You can guess, then, how much is known by outsiders, particularly those halfway around
the world.
According to Li Qiang, the founder of China Labor Watch, it may not even be Walmart’s
fault that the labor of prisoners was used in its manufacturing practices.
It is not uncommon for a company to place an order to a factory that then transfers
this order to prisons.
This may be done without notifying the company that any such transfer was ever made.
In this case, where should we place the blame?
Some may be doing business with factories literally built next door to prisons but that
have business names that have no association with the prisons.
The intention is to be misleading.
People would never guess where the labor of workers truly takes place, and how could they?
Others who are aware, often don’t share the information.
Further, they may even intentionally conceal it in the interest of profit.
Suppliers are rarely straightforward about such things with their clients.
They have little to lose by being dishonest.
After all, checks of facilities aren’t done very frequently.
It is also virtually impossible to inspect all of them with the many different suppliers
or subcontractors involved in the extensive Walmart operation.
So Chinese prison labor can easily be used unknowingly.
This hardly makes it right, but it sheds some light on the scope of the problem and why
it’s a difficult one to improve, let alone fix.
This was true when such notes supposedly penned by prisoners were found in items at other
retailers like Kmart, Zara, Saks, and Primark.
When shoppers are made aware of unfair practices, though they condemn it, that’s typically
where the reaction ends.
Little if anything changes.
Soon, they return to buy items in the same place for the same bargains.
As for the businesses, it’s debatable if public pressure matters or not when it comes
to enforcing change on their supply chain, and also depends on the particular situation.
In general, they often have little incentive to take measures to improve their source of
suppliers.
Beyond the demand for cheap labor, in places like China there are no proper laws by which
they can determine that prison worker’s rights have been violated.
Without these laws there can be no successful litigation against them.
Changes made at this point are basically voluntary.
Further still, the whole note by a prisoner story is now often met with skepticism.
When such notes are found, the businesses they are associated with often fail to acknowledge
them as genuine.
To be fair, there is no easy way to determine this and there will always be the chance that
they are forgeries written by someone else in a different location in order to bring
attention to the plight of prison laborers.
Despite their intentions, this may have a somewhat negative effect as it now means that
when real letters are found many will instantly question them.
For example, notes have been written in English that were attributed to Chinese prisoners,
but these are very unlikely to be real.
After all, poor Chinese prisoners would likely never have learned English, especially to
the point of mastery.
Not to mention, identical notes have been attached to labels of goods that originated
from factories in entirely different locations.
These are obviously fake and must have been created not in their point of origin but in
their final destination country.
So now you may be wondering about Christel’s letter.
As we said, it was written in Chinese which adds to its credibility.
Beyond this, it referenced the specific prison that the prisoner was in.
This provides a unique opportunity.
It means that if someone wanted to, they just might be able to learn more about that specific
prison and its inmate population.
There could be a way to determine beyond a reasonable doubt if the note was written by
someone inside and is truly genuine.
Luckily, a journalist decided to do just that.
Rossalyn A. Warren, who writes for Vox.com wanted answers.
She began a search for the jail referenced in the 2-inch square note called Yingshan
Prison.
She believed it was in the city of Guilin based off an obscure decade old report she
had found.
So, she hopped on two planes, two taxis, a bus, and a train to get to this destination
in rural China and a local was paid to help her find its exact location.
They arrived in the area where they found an old sign with the word Yingshan on it.
As they walked, they began to encounter surveillance cameras and three different warning signs
to keep their distance.
Soon they came upon it, though they did make sure not to get too close.
It was quite a discovery.
The prison was not some made up thing, it was a real place guarded by real guardsmen.
However, it looked more like a residential building with its cream paint, white window
frames, and surrounding bushes.
Was this also meant to be misleading?
Fearing the guards, the reporter then left the area and traveled to a nearby village
to ask questions.
Almost everyone knew about what took place in the prison because they either worked there,
knew someone who had, or knew someone imprisoned.
It was not exactly hard to get thrown in jail.
Simply speaking out against the Chinese government is enough to get you a long prison sentence
that includes manual labor.
The locals told stories of fabric being trucked in and out of the facility and on to Guangdong
province where there are over 60,000 factories.
Many also confirmed that women’s fashion items were routinely made by convicts laboring
in the Yingshan Prison’s walls, so it's entirely possible that a Walmart purse was
stitched together there as well.
Although the locals are aware of the prison, there is a cultural acceptance of the practice
as there is an inherent cultural belief that those in the prison system need to be rehabilitated.
Things such as hard manual labor are meant to help with the reform process, however,
it is not without consequences, as many inmates have committed suicide due to the miserable
conditions.
Ultimately, Warren’s trip was a success, though what it uncovered is quite gloomy.
It proved is that the note could very well be real as the details it contained were verified
to likely be true.
The prison exists produces similar items to the one bought from Walmart.
A representative of the Laogai Research Foundation believes this too, particularly because of
the exact language used.
Comparing the prisoners to animals using the wording it did is common in China.
This gives further evidence to the idea that it did not come from an alternate source in
America pretending to be a prisoner.
The note reveals true desperation and this representative is convinced that whomever
wrote it would surely have died if they were discovered doing it.
As we discussed earlier, forced labor in China will likely continue, but the note did make
a bit of a difference in this case.
Walmart had done some investigating of its own while the reporter did hers and discovered
the factory where the purse was made was in violation of Walmart’s standards.
As a consequence, Walmart stopped doing business with the factory.
However, Walmart has never clarified whether or not it was an actual prisoner who produced
the purse.
Perhaps they were unable to get any real answers either.
So what do you think?
Was the note real?
If it was will you continue to shop at Walmart?
Will you look at labels to see where things are made?
If not, why not?
Let us know in the comments!
Also, be sure to check out our video Worst Prison Experiments Conducted on Humans!
Thanks for watching, and, as always, don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe.
See you next time!