LeveragedBuyout
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Sorry, but this article made me laugh. Where can I purchase a set of these torture tools? It sounds like China knows how to get medieval on the bad guys.
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Report: ‘Torture’ Tools Around the World Made in, Sold By China - China Real Time Report - WSJ
In this photo provided by China’s official Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Xi Jinping, center, watches drills of troops of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, May 1, 2014.
Associated Press Photo/Xinhua
China is becoming a major exporter of “torture” tools—from metal-spiked batons to electric-stun guns—that end up in countries where domestic-security services have been accused of human-rights abuses, a U.K.-based watchdog says.
More than 130 Chinese firms—including large state-owned enterprises—were producing and trading law-enforcement kit as of early this year, up from roughly 28 firms a decade earlier, Amnesty International said in a report published Tuesday. Their products mainly have legitimate policing uses, but also include tools that activists say are “intrinsically cruel” and should be banned, it added.
They include spiked batons, electric-shock weapons and mechanical restraints like weighted legcuffs, thumbcuffs and restraint chairs, many of which “have no legitimate law enforcement use,” the report said.
There is little official data on production and trade volumes, but Amnesty cited public information from Chinese firms, their growing presence at defense trade fairs, as well as photography of their tools being used overseas as evidence of China’s widening influence in the global market.
“China has no proper mechanism to ensure that [police equipment] that inherently abuses human rights is withdrawn from the market and from use by law enforcers,” Amnesty said. “As a result, law enforcement equipment has been exported from China to countries where there was a foreseeable and substantial risk of serious human rights violations by law enforcement agencies.”
Such tools have been sold in Africa and Southeast Asia, Amnesty said. For instance, China sold tear gas, handcuffs and electric-shock batons to Liberia in 2008 during a United Nations arms embargo placed on such equipment, said the watchdog, which produced the report with Omega Research Foundation, a U.K.-based group that studies the production, trade and use of military, security and police equipment.
Among other deals, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2011 separately received shipments of riot-control gear from Poly Technologies, a Chinese state-owned defense contractor that produces tools including electric-stun guns, spiked shields and mechanical restraints, the Amnesty report said.
These sales occurred despite widespread concerns over rights abuses by the two countries’ security services, and the equipment was likely used during crackdowns on dissent there, according to the watchdog.
China’s Commerce Ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Poly Technologies, whose website said it has links with more than 100 countries, also didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a Tuesday press briefing, China’s foreign ministry said it was skeptical of the report. “This international organization is always biased against China and I really doubt the authenticity of this report that’s released,” said spokeswoman Hua Chunying.
At home, China’s domestic-security services have also deployed “inhumane” law-enforcement kit during security crackdowns and criminal interrogations, Amnesty said.
Followers of ethnic conflict in China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang, home to a separatist movement made up of mostly Muslim Uighurs, will recognize some of the tools. During deadly race riots in the regional capital of Urumqi in 2009, Han Chinese residents were photographed carrying spiked clubs similar to those depicted in the Amnesty report.
In April, Chinese President Xi Jinping was photographed examining a rack of crowd-control weapons in a Xinjiang police station, where he emphasized the need to “come up with good tactics as well as usable weapons” to fight terrorism. After Mr. Xi’s visit, the Twitter account of the Communist Party’s flagship newspaper, People’s Daily, posted images of Chinese SWAT officers taking practice stabs with a combination baton-spear.
Human-rights activists who were detained by authorities have in the past described being strapped into metal chairs during interrogations or made to wear heavy leg irons for long periods of time.
More In Xinjiang
China bans torture and mistreatment of criminal suspects and inmates, and authorities have repeatedly denied any widespread use of torture. In recent years, the government has sought to curb concerns over rights abuses by introducing video recording of interrogations and rules against admitting in court evidence obtained through torture, among other steps.
This month, a Chinese regional court convicted and jailed three police officers and four others for torturing suspects during interrogationsearly last year in the northeasterncity of Harbin, the official Xinhua News Agency said. In one of the cases, a man died after interrogators shocked him electrically and struck his head and face with a shoe, the agency said.
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Report: ‘Torture’ Tools Around the World Made in, Sold By China - China Real Time Report - WSJ
- September 23, 2014, 2:37 PM HKT
In this photo provided by China’s official Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Xi Jinping, center, watches drills of troops of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, May 1, 2014.
Associated Press Photo/Xinhua
China is becoming a major exporter of “torture” tools—from metal-spiked batons to electric-stun guns—that end up in countries where domestic-security services have been accused of human-rights abuses, a U.K.-based watchdog says.
More than 130 Chinese firms—including large state-owned enterprises—were producing and trading law-enforcement kit as of early this year, up from roughly 28 firms a decade earlier, Amnesty International said in a report published Tuesday. Their products mainly have legitimate policing uses, but also include tools that activists say are “intrinsically cruel” and should be banned, it added.
They include spiked batons, electric-shock weapons and mechanical restraints like weighted legcuffs, thumbcuffs and restraint chairs, many of which “have no legitimate law enforcement use,” the report said.
There is little official data on production and trade volumes, but Amnesty cited public information from Chinese firms, their growing presence at defense trade fairs, as well as photography of their tools being used overseas as evidence of China’s widening influence in the global market.
“China has no proper mechanism to ensure that [police equipment] that inherently abuses human rights is withdrawn from the market and from use by law enforcers,” Amnesty said. “As a result, law enforcement equipment has been exported from China to countries where there was a foreseeable and substantial risk of serious human rights violations by law enforcement agencies.”
Such tools have been sold in Africa and Southeast Asia, Amnesty said. For instance, China sold tear gas, handcuffs and electric-shock batons to Liberia in 2008 during a United Nations arms embargo placed on such equipment, said the watchdog, which produced the report with Omega Research Foundation, a U.K.-based group that studies the production, trade and use of military, security and police equipment.
Among other deals, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2011 separately received shipments of riot-control gear from Poly Technologies, a Chinese state-owned defense contractor that produces tools including electric-stun guns, spiked shields and mechanical restraints, the Amnesty report said.
These sales occurred despite widespread concerns over rights abuses by the two countries’ security services, and the equipment was likely used during crackdowns on dissent there, according to the watchdog.
China’s Commerce Ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Poly Technologies, whose website said it has links with more than 100 countries, also didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a Tuesday press briefing, China’s foreign ministry said it was skeptical of the report. “This international organization is always biased against China and I really doubt the authenticity of this report that’s released,” said spokeswoman Hua Chunying.
At home, China’s domestic-security services have also deployed “inhumane” law-enforcement kit during security crackdowns and criminal interrogations, Amnesty said.
Followers of ethnic conflict in China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang, home to a separatist movement made up of mostly Muslim Uighurs, will recognize some of the tools. During deadly race riots in the regional capital of Urumqi in 2009, Han Chinese residents were photographed carrying spiked clubs similar to those depicted in the Amnesty report.
In April, Chinese President Xi Jinping was photographed examining a rack of crowd-control weapons in a Xinjiang police station, where he emphasized the need to “come up with good tactics as well as usable weapons” to fight terrorism. After Mr. Xi’s visit, the Twitter account of the Communist Party’s flagship newspaper, People’s Daily, posted images of Chinese SWAT officers taking practice stabs with a combination baton-spear.
Human-rights activists who were detained by authorities have in the past described being strapped into metal chairs during interrogations or made to wear heavy leg irons for long periods of time.
More In Xinjiang
- Uighur Scholar in China Sentenced to Life in Prison
- Heard in the Hutong: The Scotland Independence Referendum
- Bad Timing: China Activist's Trial Opens With U.S. Envoy in Town
- As Violence Surges, a Moderate Uighur Faces Trial in China
- 'People's War' on Terrorism in China Turns Lucrative With One Million Yuan Rewards
China bans torture and mistreatment of criminal suspects and inmates, and authorities have repeatedly denied any widespread use of torture. In recent years, the government has sought to curb concerns over rights abuses by introducing video recording of interrogations and rules against admitting in court evidence obtained through torture, among other steps.
This month, a Chinese regional court convicted and jailed three police officers and four others for torturing suspects during interrogationsearly last year in the northeasterncity of Harbin, the official Xinhua News Agency said. In one of the cases, a man died after interrogators shocked him electrically and struck his head and face with a shoe, the agency said.
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