Abstract:

"Despite the economic success of China and ever increasing foreign investments, China is one of five countries where torture has reached epidemic proportions. For the workers who have created China's new commercial wealth, there has been little development in their civil rights. Foreign companies enjoy the benefits of cheap labor, but make no provisions for safety arrangements. If workers complain they are dispatched to bleak lab camps where they undergo 're-education.' The death penalty is being increasingly prescribed as a panacea for all social ills. This film also describes how the powerful Public Security Bureau which controls all aspects of citizens' lives, usually chooses to ignore legal dictates. In court, lawyers have inadequate time to prepare a proper defense for their clients and rulings are usually arbitrary. The conviction rate for criminal cases is well over ninety percent. We hear from two lawyers who put their lives at risk to criticize the current system. Muslims, Christians, and Buddhists suffer discrimination and police harassment. Even foreign businessmen are vulnerable, as was shown in the case of an Australian sentenced to 17 years after he argued with his Chinese partner. Human rights violations could be curbed if the world's business community would apply pressure on its leaders."