TJ Cox: “slavery is an ugly institution, and its most hideous and virulent form is prison slave labor. Slavery was not officially…”

“slavery is an ugly institution, and its most hideous and virulent form is prison slave labor. Slavery was not officially abolished in imperial China until the end of the Manchu dynasty in 1908, and even then, the law permitted families in time of famine to indenture their children for over 20 years. But even though slavery was not officially abolished in China until earlier in this century, it was the ignominious achievement of Chinese communism to reinstate it in the form of the notorious Laogai slave labor camps. The Laogai, or reform through labor, camps have been an integral part of Chinese totalitarianism since the inception of the People's Republic of China in 1949. They are designed for the dual purposes of political control and forced development modeled on Stalin's Soviet gulag. An estimated 50 million Chinese men and women have passed through these camps, of whom 15 million have perished. Today, anywhere from 6 to 8 million people are captive in the 1,100 camps of the Laogai, held and forced to work under grossly inhumane conditions. The People's Republic of China tells us that this does not go on at all, but today the United States does not impose punitive tariffs on these products, we ban them. Mr. Speaker, 27 specified products of the Laogai camps are already kept out by our Customs agents and yet the Customs authorities tell us they just do not have the resources to do the job and this bill gives them those resources.”