I
105TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 2195
To provide for certain measures to increase monitoring of products of the
People’s Republic of China that are made with forced labor.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JULY 17, 1997
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey (for himself, Mr. COX of California, Mr. GILMAN,
Mr. SPENCE, Mr. SOLOMON, Mr. SHADEGG, Mr. MCINTOSH, Mr.
ROHRABACHER, Mr. GIBBONS, and Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways
and Means, and in addition to the Committee on International Relations,
for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case
for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the
committee concerned
A BILL
To provide for certain measures to increase monitoring of
products of the People’s Republic of China that are
made with forced labor.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Laogai Slave Labor
Products Act of 1997’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress makes the following findings:
(1) The People’s Republic of China operates
and maintains an extensive forced labor camp sys-
tem—the Laogai.
(2) The Laogai is made up of more than 1,100
forced labor camps, with an estimated population of
6,000,000 to 8,000,000 prisoners.
(3) In one part of the Laogai system, known as
laojiao, or reeducation-through-labor, Chinese citi-
zens can be detained for up to 3 years without any
judicial review or formal appearance in the judicial
system.
(4) The Laogai is an integral sector of the ex-
port economy of the People’s Republic of China and
is engaged in the export to the United States of the
goods made by forced labor.
(5) The Government of the People’s Republic of
China actively promotes the forced labor camps by
employing a system of dual names for the camps to
deceive the international community.
(6) The United States Customs Service has
taken formal administrative action banning the im-
portation of 27 different products found to have
been made in the Laogai.
(7) Despite the fact that the People’s Republic
of China has entered into binding agreements with
the United States (the 1992 Memorandum of Un-
derstanding on Prison Labor, and the 1994 State-
ment of Cooperation on the Implementation of the
Memorandum of Understanding on Prison Labor) to
allow inspections of its forced labor camps to deter-
mine the origins of suspected Laogai imports to the
United States, the People’s Republic of China has
frustrated the implementation of these agreements.
(8) The State Department’s Human Rights
Country Reports in 1995 and 1996 each stated,
‘‘Repeated delays in arranging prison labor site vis-
its called into question Chinese intentions regarding
the implementation of’’ the two agreements referred
to in paragraph (7).
(9) Concerning the ability of the United States
Customs Service to identify Communist Chinese
products that originate in the Laogai, Commissioner
of Customs George J. Weise stated in testimony be-
fore the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on
May 22, 1997: ‘‘We simply do not have the tools
within our present arsenal at Customs to gain the
timely and in-depth verification that we need.’’.
SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION FOR ADDITIONAL CUSTOMS AND
STATE DEPARTMENT PERSONNEL TO MON-
ITOR EXPORTATION OF SLAVE LABOR PROD-
UCTS BY THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA.
There are authorized to be appropriated for monitor-
ing by the United States Customs Service and the Depart-
ment of State of the exportation by the People’s Republic
of China to the United States of products made with slave
labor, the importation of which violates section 307 of the
Tariff Act of 1930 or section 1761 of title 18, United
States Code, $2,000,000 for fiscal year 1998 and
$2,000,000 for fiscal year 1999.
SEC. 4. REPORTING REQUIREMENT ON EXPORTATION OF
SLAVE LABOR PRODUCTS BY THE PEOPLE’S
REPUBLIC OF CHINA.
(a) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 1 year
after the date of the enactment of this Act and annually
thereafter, the Commissioner of Customs and the Sec-
retary of State shall each prepare and transmit to the
Congress reports on the manufacturing and exportation
of products made with slave labor in the People’s Republic
of China.
(b) CONTENTS OF REPORT.—Each report under sub-
section (a) shall include information concerning the follow-
ing:
(1) The extent of the use of slave labor in man-
ufacturing products for exportation by the People’s
Republic of China, as well as the volume of exports
of such slave labor products by that country.
(2) The progress of the United States Govern-
ment in identifying products made with slave labor
in the People’s Republic of China that are destined
for the United States market in violation of section
307 of the Tariff Act of 1930 or section 1761 of
title 18, United States Code, and in stemming the
importation of those products.
SEC. 5. RENEGOTIATION OF THE MEMORANDUM OF UN-
DERSTANDING ON PRISON LABOR WITH THE
PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA.
It is the sense of the Congress that, since the People’s
Republic of China has substantially frustrated the pur-
poses of the 1992 Memorandum of Understanding with
the United States on Prison Labor, the President should
immediately commence negotiations to replace the current
Memorandum of Understanding on Prison Labor with one
providing for effective monitoring of forced labor in the
People’s Republic of China, without restrictions on which
prison labor camps international monitors may visit.
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