Chinese companies, some of them state-owned, are profiting from the production and export of law enforcement equipment that can be used for torture, fueling human rights abuses in Africa and Asia, two international human rights organizations said in a report released on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
By DAN LEVIN
SEPT. 23, 2014<\/p>\n
BEIJING \u2014 Chinese companies, some of them state-owned, are profiting from the production and export of law enforcement equipment that can be used for torture, fueling human rights abuses in Africa and Asia, two international human rights organizations said in a report released on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
More than 130 Chinese companies are involved in the lucrative trade, up from 28 a decade ago, and many openly sell such \u201ctools of torture\u201d as electric shock wands, spiked batons and weighted leg cuffs, according to the new report<\/a> by Amnesty International and the Omega Research Foundation, a British organization that studies the international use and distribution of law enforcement equipment.<\/p>\n The report characterized such tools as \u201cinherently cruel and inhumane\u201d and called for a ban on their manufacture, sale and export. It described other products made by the Chinese companies as having legitimate uses but being prone to abuse.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s time for China to take responsibility for Chinese equipment that has no other purpose but cruel and inhumane treatment used abroad,\u201d said Patrick Wilcken, an Amnesty International researcher based in London.<\/p>\n A report by two human rights groups says that more than 130 Chinese companies are involved in producing and selling equipment like electric shock wands and spiked batons. Credit Robin Ballantyne\/Agence France-Presse \u2014 Getty Images<\/p>\n The Chinese Ministry of Commerce did not respond to a faxed request for comment on the report.<\/p>\n Rights organizations have documented numerous cases of torture by the Chinese authorities, although China officially bans the practice and frequently denies engaging in it. In April, Zhao Chunguang, a national official who oversees police detention facilities, said that in the past five years, torture had never been used to extract a confession in a Chinese detention center.<\/p>\n In a rare admission, the state-run news agency Xinhua reported on Monday that three police officers and four security officials had been convicted of torturing seven suspects to extract confessions and of killing another detainee, who died after being subjected to electric shocks and being hit on the head with a shoe. On Tuesday, Xinhua reported that the Beijing Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection, a government agency that investigates corruption, had announced that each district and county must set up standardized interrogation rooms fitted with padded walls and upholstered furniture \u201cto prevent accidents.\u201d<\/p>\n According to the rights groups\u2019 report released on Tuesday, titled \u201cChina\u2019s Trade in Tools of Torture and Repression,\u201d the Chinese government has failed to regulate the export of equipment with the potential for abuse by security forces abroad. The organization found that such equipment was sold to countries that include Egypt, Ghana, Madagascar, Nepal and Senegal.<\/p>\n Many of these products end up in countries in Africa where police brutality is common, the report said. In 2011, security forces in Uganda used Chinese riot control equipment in a violent crackdown on protests that left at least nine people dead and more than 100 injured. In the same year, the police in the Democratic Republic of Congo used Chinese equipment to quash unrest during the prelude to an election, killing at least 33 people, the report said.<\/p>\n The report said that China was the only country known to produce spiked truncheons, which have sharp metal spikes running along the entire length of the baton or have spiked metal heads. These tools, sold by seven Chinese companies, have been used in Cambodia and exported to Nepal and Thailand, the report said.<\/p>\n Researchers also found that 29 Chinese companies advertised the sale of electric stun batons, which can be easily used to shock the genitals, throat or ears without leaving permanent traces. Dozens of other Chinese companies manufacture and sell restraints, like cuffs that connect the neck and wrists and can restrict breathing and blood circulation, which can lead to death. Particularly prone to abuse are restraint chairs, rigid seats made of metal and wood in which detainees can be strapped into uncomfortable positions and left for hours.<\/p>\n A maker of restraint chairs<\/a> and projectile stun guns<\/a>, Chengdu Hengan Police Equipment Manufacturers, features on its website a photo of President Xi Jinping inspecting a bayonet. Reached by phone, a representative who gave her name as Ms. Yang refused to discuss the company\u2019s products, citing confidentiality agreements.<\/p>\n