Eli Crane: “I call up the bill (H.R. 2195) to provide for certain measures to increase monitoring of products of the People's…”

“I call up the bill (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. This Act may be cited as the ``Laogai Slave Labor Products Act of 1997''. The Congress makes the following findings: (1) The People's Republic of China operates and maintains an extensive forced labor camp system--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 citizens 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 export 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.”