Qingpu Prison

The prison is supervised under Shanghai Prison Administration, which says that the prison has 4 task forces including security, office, education, labor. The prison is said to have 15 offices with different functions covering comprehensive issues, professional issues, cooperative issues, and maintenance issues.{{cite web |title=上海市青浦监狱 |trans-title=Shanghai Municipal Qingpu Prison |date=2014-12-29 |publisher=Shanghai Municipal Prison Administration |url=https://jyj.sh.gov.cn/jyw/n62/n66/u1ai221.html |access-date=2019-12-25 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181220212222/http://jyj.sh.gov.cn/jyw/n62/n66/u1ai221.html |archive-date=2018-12-20}}

Principally, Qingpu Prison is used to detain those who are sentenced to more than 7 years. It is also an appointed prison in Shanghai to hold foreign male criminals and has detainees from around 40 countries. According to Shanghai Prison Administration, Qingpu Prison has 9 units. Among the units, three functional units include logistic unit, foreign prisoners unit and full alert unit. Commutation-restricted or highly dangerous criminals are held in full alert unit. Foreign prisoners are held in the foreign prisoners unit, which were said to be Brigade No. 8, according to former detainees.{{cite news |title=When Rio Tinto Met China's Iron Hand |last1=Chellel |first1=Kit |last2=Wild |first2=Franz |last3=Stringer |first3=David |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-07-13/did-china-hack-rio-tinto-to-gain-a-billion-dollar-advantage |date=July 13, 2018 |publisher=Bloomberg News |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180716043759/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-07-13/did-china-hack-rio-tinto-to-gain-a-billion-dollar-advantage |archive-date=July 16, 2018}}{{cite web |url= http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/03/29/2858397.htm |archive-url= https://archive.today/20120717063337/http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/03/29/2858397.htm |url-status= dead |archive-date= July 17, 2012 |title=Chinese steel boss in court as Hu faces verdict |last=McDonell |first=Stephen |date=29 March 2010 |website=www.abc.net.au |access-date=29 March 2010}}

According to the prison, the prisoners need to work for 5 days, study for 1 day and rest for 1 day each week. Shanghai Open University provides degree education for the prisoners. Vocational education is also provided, which includes education of jade sculpture, embroidery, bamboo sculpture in Shanghai local culture. Some released prisoners are said to become a national or citywide experts in such skills.

When interviewed by state-owned television CCTV/CGTN in 2019, Li Qiang, Warden of Qingpu Prison, said that the labor in the prison was elective, and was paid by the prison. He added that when the prisoners are released, they could withdraw the payment from the prison after paying a forfeit.{{cite news |url = https://news.sina.com.cn/c/2019-12-24/doc-iihnzahi9737929.shtml|title=上海青浦监狱监狱长驳英媒报道：想象力有点丰富|date=2019-12-24 |publisher=CCTV |access-date=2019-12-25 |via=Sina }}

According to Shanghai local media Xinmin Weekly in 2019, Qingpu prison has held activities including art festival, food festival, stage drama, etc.{{cite news |url=http://panorama.eastday.com/p/n1193816/u1ai20253250.html |title=青浦监狱平安夜 |date=2019-12-25 |website=panorama.eastday.con (东方网纵相频道) |access-date=2019-12-25 }} Previous coverage by Xinimn in 2006 said that the prison treated Chinese and foreign prisoners differently. For example, foreign prisoners were not required to made the bed as tidy as the Chinese prisoners They were also provided education programs including Chinese language, Chinese geography and Chinese history.{{cite magazine |url=http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2006-05-24/15069955718.shtml |title=上海青浦监狱外籍服刑人员改造新探 |date=2006-05-24 |magazine=新民周刊|access-date=2019-12-25}}

Another Shanghai local media eastday.com made a report in 2018 about how jade curving in Brigade No. 6 positively changed a criminal and made him a peaceful and intellectual person. In the report, Liu Gang, Deputy Warden of Brigade No. 6, told the reporter that no one among over 100 prisoners released from the brigade in the last 20 years committed a crime again and 80% of these prisoners became a jade sculptor after released.{{cite web|url= http://panorama.eastday.com/p/n1145503/u1ai11991636.html |title=当这些重刑犯放下"屠刀"，拿起"刻刀" |author1=卞英豪 |author2=冯茵伦 |author3=汪鹏翀 |author4=丁一涵 |date=2018-11-15 |website=Eastday.com|access-date=2019-12-26}}

Yet, according to an autobiographic story by former prisoner Peter Humphrey in the Sunday Times, life in Qingpu Prison was a misery, where 12 prisoners were held in a cell, prisoners slept on rusted iron bunks covered with only 1-cm-thick mattress, there was no heating or air conditioner in the cell, making summer extremely hot and winter bitterly cold and prisoners had to get up during 5:30 - 6:00 AM and had to go to bed at around 21:30 PM.{{cite news |url = https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-50883161 |title=Girl's find in Tesco card halts China production|date=2019-12-22|publisher=BBC|access-date=2019-12-25|url-status=live|archive-date=2019-12-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191224093945/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-50883161 |language=en-GB}} The ceiling lights were never turned off and the barred windows were always open. He described the prison as a "a business, doing manufacturing jobs for companies" using forced prison labour.{{cite news |url=https://www.hongkongfp.com/2019/12/23/qingpu-prison-cultural-exchange-centre-forced-labour-scandal/ |title=Qingpu Prison: the 'cultural exchange' centre in forced labour scandal |date=23 December 2019 |website=Hong Kong Free Press |agency=Agence France-Presse }}

Peter Humphrey, a British private investigator, spent nine months at Qingpu Prison during a 23-month incarceration in China. He was put to jail due to his "illegal acquisition of personal information" according to Shanghai No.1 Intermediate Court's sentence after arrested during an investigation into a high-rank employee's bribery in China paid by GlaxoSmithKline headquarter. Before Peter Humphrey and his wife finished the investigation, the Chinese police arrested them due to the company's bribery across China. Humphrey was released in 2015.{{Cite web|title=台媒：大陆提前释放葛兰素史克私人侦探(图) |date=2015-06-11 |website=央广网 |url=http://news.cnr.cn/native/gd/20150611/t20150611_518825135.shtml|access-date=2019-12-26}}

Qingpu Prison made global headlines in December 2019 after a London family discovered a plea for help written in a Christmas card purchased from British supermarket chain Tesco. The message claimed to be written by inmates of Qingpu Prison "forced to work against our will", and implored the reader to contact human rights organisations as well as former inmate Peter Humphrey. The cards were produced by Zhejiang Yunguang Printing, located roughly 100 kilometres from the prison.{{cite news |last1=Sandle |first1=Paul |last2=Yang |first2=Yingzhi |last3=Sun |first3=Yilei |title=Tesco suspends Chinese supplier after suspected prisoner message |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesco-china-labour/tesco-suspends-chinese-supplier-after-suspected-prisoner-message-idUSKBN1YQ07J |work=Reuters |date=22 December 2019}} Humphrey said he believed the message was written by his former cellmates.{{cite news |last=Knowles |first=Hannah |title=A girl said she found a plea for help in her Christmas card. The seller is investigating. |date=23 December 2019 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/12/22/girl-said-she-found-plea-help-her-christmas-card-seller-is-investigating/ |newspaper=The Washington Post}}

Other former prisoners have since confirmed forced labor and torture at this facility.[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/28/tesco-christmas-card-china-jail-inmates-claim-psychological-torture Inside the Chinese jail behind the Christmas card scandal] The Guardian, 2019

A couple of days after the message was discovered, China's Foreign Ministry spokesmen Geng Shuang denied forced labour accusations, saying: "I can responsibly say, according to the relevant organs, Qingpu prison does not have this issue of foreign prisoners being forced to work." Tesco has since suspended the Chinese supplier of Christmas cards and has launched its own investigation.{{cite news|title=China denies forced labour accusations after plea found in Christmas card|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/china-denies-forced-labor-accusations-in-christmas-card-1.5406548|work=CBC|date=December 23, 2019}}

Chen Yunbiao, General Manager of Zhejiang Yunguang Printing, said to state-owned television CCTV, "On hearing the news, I was very shocked, because we had never done that. Not only do I have no contact with Qingpu Prison, but I don't know where the prison is. It is completely fabricated and is a libel. We never had any business relationship with Qingpu Prison." He added that according to the contract, their foreign customers could even examine their computers to ensure their transparency and had random check on employee rights.{{cite web |url = http://m.ce.cn/sh/sgg/201912/25/t20191225_33971389.shtml |title = 中企被外媒指控强迫外籍囚犯劳动 回应:纯属捏造_中国经济网 |website = ce.cn |access-date=2019-12-26 }}

A former inmate from Lithuania has come forward and confirmed allegations of forced labor and mistreatment as well as a coverup following the Christmas card being discovered in the UK.{{cite web |last1=Humphrey |first1=Peter |title=Forced Prison Labor in China: Hiding in Plain Sight |url=https://thediplomat.com/2022/01/forced-prison-labor-in-china-hiding-in-plain-sight/ |website=thediplomat.com |publisher=The Diplomat |access-date=26 January 2022}}

• Jude Shao - American entrepreneur.
• Stern Hu - Australian businessman.{{Cite news|url=https://www.ft.com/content/db8b9e36-1119-11e8-940e-08320fc2a277|title='I was locked inside a steel cage': Peter Humphrey on his life inside a Chinese prison|newspaper=Financial Times|date=16 February 2018}}
• Peter William Humphrey – British private investigator
• James Peng Jiandong – Australian businessman abducted in 1993 from Macau, then a Portuguese territory, by the Chinese government{{cite news |last=Chan |first=Vivien Pik-kwan |title=Consulate team visits jailed businessman |work=South China Morning Post |date=26 June 1997 |page=12 }}

{{Reflist}}

• {{in lang|zh}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20110707041546/http://jyj.sh.gov.cn/shjyj/script/showDocument%3FdocumentPath%3DPlone/content/jyjj/jyjjnr/document.2004-09-28.5417247694%26templatePath%3Dshjyj/templates/documentPage/single_document_jyjjxl%26aqPagePath%3D/style/mainPage/bmfw4/jyjj%26channel%3D/Plone/content/jyjj/jyjjnr%26anno%3D2/ Shanghai Qingpu Prison page of the Shanghai Bureau of Prison Administration Website]
• {{in lang|en}} Financial Times February 16, 2018 [https://www.ft.com/content/db8b9e36-1119-11e8-940e-08320fc2a277 ‘I was locked inside a steel cage’: Peter Humphrey on his life inside a Chinese prison]
• {{in lang|en}} UK Guardian, December 22, 2019 [https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/dec/22/tesco-halts-production-at-chinese-factory-over-forced-labour-claims-christmas-cards Tesco withdraws Christmas cards from sale after forced labour claims]
• {{in lang|en}} BBC December 23, 2019 [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-50890519 Tesco Christmas card factory in China denies 'forced labour']

{{China prisons}}

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Category:Foreign nationals imprisoned in China

Category:1994 establishments in Shanghai

Category:Prisons in Shanghai

Category:Qingpu District

Category:Penal labor in China

Category:Government buildings completed in 1994