Chinese prisoner's ID card apparently found in lining of Regatta coat

[PatrickforB]

Source: Guardian

An ID card that appears to belong to a Chinese prisoner was found inside the lining of a coat from the British brand Regatta, raising concerns that the clothing was manufactured using prison labour. The waterproof women’s coat was bought online by a woman in Derbyshire in the Black Friday sale. When it arrived on 22 November, she could feel a hard rectangular item in the right sleeve, which restricted the movement of her elbow. After cutting into the coat to remove the item, she discovered what looked like a prison identification card, with a mugshot of a man apparently in a prisoner’s uniform in front of a height chart, and the name of the prison in China. The card was found inside a plastic holder embossed with the words: “Produced by the Ministry of Justice prisons bureau.”

It is not clear how the ID card ended up in the coat or whether it was put there deliberately. Handwritten notes from Chinese prisoners occasionally turn up in consumer products, such as in 2019, when a note written in English was found by a six-year-old girl in a Christmas card sold by Tesco. The note said “We are foreign prisoners in Shanghai Qinqpu prison China. Forced to work against our will. Please help us and notify human rights organization.”

Last month, the French broadcaster Arte aired a documentary about a handwritten Chinese letter that was found inside a pregnancy test bought in Paris. The anonymous note said: “Dear friends, do you know that behind your peaceful life, there are Chinese prisoners,” according to the documentary.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/01/chinese-prisoners-id-card-apparently-found-regatta-coat-lining-derbyshire

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Capitalism cares very little for labor. Prisoners here in the US are also 'worked' as slaves in the prison 'industry.'

This practice is odious, immoral, reprehensible.

[TeamProg]

1. Hmm.. An interesting development. See where that goes. And it's familiar as this famous joke.

Stan Freberg made this quip about opening a fortune cookie, “It says, ‘Help! I’m being held prisoner in a fortune cookie factory!’”

[Prairie Gates]

5. +1

Didn't see your content before I posted. Had the same thought, but the old Bazooka Joe fortune.

[Hekate]

6. GMTA -- also, we are showing our age. Stan Freberg? Bazooka Jo? Oh my.

[PSPS]

11. LOL. It seems most people know of Paul Newman as just a sauce maker too

[Hekate]

12. What? Cool Hand Luke just a sauce maker? The horror!

[JoseBalow]

8. "between the sheets"

[grumpyduck]

2. Okay, I'm going to assume

that “Produced by the Ministry of Justice prisons bureau.” was written in Chinese and someone translated it.

Reminds me of an old joke about an archaeologist finding an artifact with the inscription "Made in 50BC."

[Hekate]

7. That was a glaring omission in the article that I also noticed. ON EDIT: they covered that at link

[IronLionZion]

3. "wage inflation" and "nobody wants to work anymore"

but prison labor is practically free. That provides a big incentive to imprison more people.

We can solve this with tax cuts for jobs creators.

[Prairie Gates]

4. "Help I'm a prisoner in a bubblegum factory" vibes

Good ole Bazooka Joe.

[cab67]

9. This created a real problem in East Africa a few years back.

China has been busy building roads and port facilities in East Africa, mostly because they really want the mineral resources found in these countries.

But in some cases, the Chinese companies weren't using local labor - they were using Chinese prisoners brought to complete the projects. They weren't getting paid.

This really hacked off the local governments. It smacked of slavery, and these countries are still hurting from the slave trade.

[pecosbob]

10. Uighurs for sale.

I sweep up hair from people's extensions from the floor in my store every day and I wonder if it came from Uighur prisoners.

https://www.aspi.org.au/report/uyghurs-sale?