“A Farce” – China Denies Accusations Of Slave Labor After Chilling Note Found In Christmas Card

China on Monday denied accusations of forced labor at a Shanghai prison, one day after a young girl in a London supermarket was reportedly shocked to find a note from the Chinese gulag, according to Reuters.

The note allegedly read “We are foreign prisoners in Shanghai Qingpu Prison China. Forced to work against our will,” and urged whoever found it to contact British former journalist and corporate fraud investigator Peter Humphrey, who was imprisoned in the same Chinese jail from 2014 – 2015 for illegally obtaining the private records of Chinese citizens and selling the information to various clients – including drugmaker GalaxoSmithKline.

Tesco suspended their relationship with the Chinese Christmas card supplier on Sunday and announced an investigation.

“We were shocked by these allegations and immediately suspended the factory where these cards are produced and launched an investigation,” said a spokesman.

According to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang, however, “I can responsibly say, according to the relevant organs [!?], Shanghai’s Qingpu prison does not have this issue of foreign prisoners being forced to work.“

Ghuang said the entire story was “a farce created by Mr. Humphrey.”

The card was found by six-year-old Florence Widdicombe, who showed it to her alarmed father, who in turn contacted Humphrey on LinkedIn.

Writing in the Sunday Times, Humphrey said he did not know the identities or the nationalities of the prisoners, but he “had no doubt they are Qingpu prisoners who knew me before my release in June 2015”. –Reuters

According to Reuters, Humphrey did not believe his activities in China were illegal. He told Sky News that he believes the card came from the Zheijiang Yunguang Printing factory, where prisoners were used in the production line as slave laborers.