Excellent body of nonfiction. Well research and enjoyable to read. realistic
But also hopeful which is important for us to realize as citizens and consumers.

The story starts when Julie Keith opens a box of cheap Halloween decorations in the fall of 2012. Inside is a handwritten note in broken English. It is an S.O.S. note from a prisoner in a Chinese labor camp where they made the decorations. From there, the book's author begins to trace the fate of that prisoner. 

The prisoner is Sun Yi, an activist arrested for practicing meditations forbidden by the government; he was a member of Falun Gong, which eventually became a forbidden movement in China. The book's author spent three years at least tracing Sun Yi and learning the story we get in the book. Along the way, we learn about Chinese labor camps, which are basically gulags, that produce many of the cheap products Americans love to buy in the U.S. These are products you can find in major retailers including Walmart, Target, and other well known corporations. If you wonder why products made in China are so cheap it's because many are made in labor camp factories by unpaid exploited workers kept in inhuman conditions. American companies are glad to do business with these Chinese companies, often turning a blind eye to the exploitation. American consumers mostly care to get their stuff as cheap as possible; these consumers are mostly ignorant or indifferent to the horrifying human cost in many of the products they buy. 

The book is arranged into 19 chapters with a prologue and epilogue. The narrative alternates between Sun Yi's life story and the story of China's politics and policies including some history as well. Sun Yi's experience is quite horrifying and gruesome at times. The story is also a bit of a thriller as we wonder whether Sun Yi will be able to survive and escape. Along the way, we learn about the feeble efforts of the United States to stem the flow of labor camp products, efforts often thwarted by indifference, lobbying, and weak enforcement of what little laws are available. 

The story draws readers in, and the pace keeps going to the end. This is a book that has potential to make many who read it aware of the situation. In the author's epilogue, they offer some solutions, but given American addiction to cheap products and their unwillingness to pay what things really cost, not to mention the overall bad economy, I doubt any change is possible. The book presents an important story, but I am not sure many will bother to listen. 

The book includes a good set of notes to document its sources. It also has a bibliography that may be of interest for readers who may want to learn more. 

This is a moving book that draws you in. It tugs at the heart at times. I will add it may not be for some sensitive readers, but I think as many people as possible need to read it, more so if it makes them uncomfortable. This is a good selection for public and academic libraries.

The demand for cheap goods puts pressure on Chinese manufacturing to create at the lowest cost. The desire to homogenize Chinese people into submitting to the Chinese Communist Party allows prison camps. This book describes how those unite to enslave people into horrible working conditions. The world needs to know the truth on how goods from China are being made by those who are imprisoned for their beliefs.

Excellent read. This is one of those books that I want to put in every person's hands. It's upsetting but necessary.

This engaging, troubling book tells the story of Sun Yi, a Chinese engineer turned political prisoner who was imprisoned in a forced labor camp. The SOS letter he hid in a box of Halloween decorations was discovered by a woman in Oregon a few years later. Pang's writing is vivid and conscientious. She describes the convoluted system of global supply chains and the economics that play into human rights abuses, while also painting a clear picture of the individuals affected.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC in exchange for review.

Have you ever read/heard a story that was so good, so important, you knew you needed to keep reading - but with every word you felt as if you would throw up? That is Amelia Pang's, Made In China.

Embarrassingly enough, the event which brought this particular tale to life happened in the town in which I live, and I don't remember a dang thing about it.

In 2012, Julie, a Portland, OR resident opened a box of Halloween decorations she'd had in her garage for 2 years. In there was a note of desperation and help. Sun Yi, an engineer and political prisoner, tortured and near death, faced certain death by including that note in a package of fake gravestones for the Western holiday of skeletons and dead people. 4 years had passed when Julie read that note, but the awareness was brought to light and so was Sun's story.

Amelia Pang pens accurate and sickening investigative journalism. I wish I could force everyone to read this book. The American population who clamors for American made goods are the same people buying cheap sh*% from Dollar Tree stores and mass produced tvs put together by forced labor.

This morning I woke up to news the Biden Administration is joining other countries by putting sanctions on Chinese goods until they can clean up the extreme human rights violations. China responded by saying the USA is hypocritical and our sanctions mean nothing. Our collective desire for "stuff" is the basis for what is happening in this argument.

Made in China taught me a TON. But I was already aware of the atrocities in China, rebel against fast fashion, and try to pay attention to where my goods are made. The people who REALLY need to read this, won't. And that breaks my heart more than you can imagine. God help our souls for what we have done to His creation.

Through the eyes of Sun Yi and other political prisoners, sentenced to one of China’s “reform through labor” camps, the reader sees terrible living conditions and the horrific treatment these prisoners receive while producing the cheap goods that Americans and the rest of the world crave. Author and journalist Amelia Pang throws light on this brutal system in which these prisoners and Uighurs—a Turkic minority people in China’s far west—are not only incarcerated for their perceived danger to the Chinese state, but serve as disposable and low-cost labor in a commercial conveyor belt of products exported from China. Yet, there is plenty of criticism to go around. Pang faults the US government, US companies, and the American consuming public for sustaining this corrupt system. She does, however, offer several ways in which all three can help ameliorate the worst aspects of this trade. Made in China is a harrowing account of injustice and a call to action.

An important, intense and difficult to read book about the true cost of buying cheap goods made in China. Forced labor camps, abuse, false imprisonment, lack of food, no medical care. Just a few of the human rights violations suffered by those targeted and imporsoned. I highly recommend that everyone read " Made in China: A Prisoner, an SOS Letter, and the Hidden Cost of America's Cheap Goods."

** I received an electronic ARC in exchange for a fair and unbiased review of this book.

I had been aware of such practices described here, but this book puts it unavoidably in your face where it belongs. The responsibility for these atrocities lies with us, the consumers. I am now reading the labels of everything I purchase and making more responsible choices. I acquired this for our library because everyone needs to know what our desire for cheap disposable goods is really costing.

Made in China tackles the topics of forced labor, the actual human cost of cheap goods, and the difference between a country that is known for producing goods with one who avidly imports those same goods. Amelia Pang's nonfiction work mixes anecdote, statistics, and provides an easy to follow narrative, working backwards at times. This work will pique the interest of even the most casual of American consumers and causes the reader to really reflect on their comfort with buying and consuming products that cause human pain and suffering on the other side of the world.

Award-winning journalist Amelia Pang explores the true price of some items imported to the U.S. in her first book, Made in China, an exposé of the country's forced labor system.
In 2012, Oregonian Julie Keith finally got around to opening a box of Halloween decorations purchased at Kmart a few years earlier. In addition to the inexpensive faux tombstones advertised on its exterior, she found the box contained a note claiming to be from someone in China imprisoned in the Masanjia Labor Camp. The note read in part: "People who work here have to work 15 hours a day with out Saturday, Sunday break and any holidays, otherwise, they will suffer torturement." It ended with a plea for help. Amelia Pang's debut, Made in China, uses the discovery of this missive as a starting point for an investigation into China's Laogai ("reform through labor") system. Her account includes Keith's discovery and the actions she took following it, details from the life of Sun Yi (the author of the note), and an exploration of how U.S. industries and lifestyles contribute to the perpetuation of forced labor in China.

The lion's share of the narrative focuses on Sun Yi, exploring his arrest, his experiences at Masanjia and his life after being released from the camp, which includes further harrowing events in and outside of China. It's this personal story highlighting the horrors of the Laogai system that has the most impact. The author also makes a point of letting her audience know that it's Americans' demand for cheap products produced ever more quickly that exacerbates the situation. She makes clear that to meet our desires, China has created a bigger pool of largely unpaid labor through arrests for minor offenses and increasing production quotas for those already incarcerated.

Pang's descriptions of how easy it is for a Chinese citizen to wind up in a labor camp are truly frightening; one man, for example, was sentenced to a year at Masanjia for premeditated robbery because he was reported with a fruit knife at a bus stop. She further describes the development of a high-tech predictive policing program that is used to identify suspicious people for arrest and the increasing use of facial recognition technology, which enhances the Chinese government's ability to crack down on even minor dissent.

Also enlightening is the author's depiction of how ubiquitous Chinese products are throughout the United States, and how challenging it is to monitor whether or not specific items are produced using forced labor. While researching her book in China, Pang followed trucks leaving a supposed detox center to their destinations — manufacturers who exported products such as rubber dog toys, electronics, brakes for bicycles and school supplies. She goes on to explain how the laws enacted by the U.S. prohibiting the import of items made with forced labor lack teeth, and how difficult it is for American companies to monitor the production of every element in their supply chain (it's expensive to fully audit the origin of all the electronics that go into a smartphone, for example). Often, when a specific camp is identified as problematic, the Chinese government simply moves or renames it; because the facility is technically no longer operational, any claims filed against it are subsequently dropped. The government also frequently denies a facility is a labor camp, instead claiming it's something innocuous, like a pretrial detention facility or a workshop for vocational training.

The book is fascinating and exceptionally well-written; it flies along almost at the clip of a novel and is eminently readable. It does, however, report the truly gruesome conditions within some of the forced labor camps, including sickeningly graphic descriptions of torture. The book's subject matter is important and the information Pang shares about these horrors is vital to understanding the problem, however, so hopefully most will be able to get beyond these scenes.

Often when I complete a book about the ills of the world and how I personally have contributed to them, I feel rather bad about myself. That's not the case here, though. The author's purpose isn't to beat up on her audience, but instead to raise awareness and encourage us to make small changes that may improve conditions for China's forced laborers. For instance, she recommends thinking twice before impulse buying — ask yourself if you already own something that serves the same purpose — and looking into an item's origins where possible. Just because something says it is made in America does not mean every part of it was manufactured in the United States. Her arguments are highly persuasive; I find myself constantly checking products before making a purchase, something that had never crossed my mind before reading the book. I think Sun's story is likely to resonate with many other readers, and few will remain unaffected by the account. I highly recommend Made in China for anyone interested in the subject, and it would also make a great choice for book groups.

Historically, Pang discusses the use of forced labor in China going back several centuries; how it played an important role in the rebuilding of its economy after the war with Japan and then internally, the Communist Party and the Nationalists. Then, there are the dissidents. Pang writes about the laogai industry, its worth, including laogai prison camps and its categories. This whole section proves to be very enlightening. The main gist of this book really lies in the subject of human rights and the treatment of those in the labor force; the dreadful treatment of those in the labor force, especially in China as you will read in this book. The stories of several people are followed, just a few of the many we know not of, which tells us of some of the horrors perpetrated upon the common, working, folk. Yes, you may have heard of this before. You may have heard of this time and time again. Maybe it’s time we think a little harder on it. Mind provoking.

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"There is a darker side to China's rags-to-riches transformation - and our own pleasure in the cheap products that we consume daily. During our endless search for the newest trends and the lowest prices, we become complicit in the forced labor industry." - Amelia Pang
Amelia Pang's new book, Made in China, has an almost-irresistible hook: A middle-class American woman, opening Halloween decorations, finds a folded piece of paper. It is a note. More accurately, an SOS letter. A man from the other side of the world was being forced to work in a labor camp making cheap decorative tombstones for Halloween parties. He wrote so that whoever found the letter could contact a human rights organization.
But Made in China is so much more than just a hook. It has everything one could want in a nonfiction book: a crisp, well-told narrative, relatable people at the center, a strong message for the reader, and action steps you can take. And as a whole, those aspects are so fantastically done that Made in China could be a dark horse among the best books of 2021.


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The problem: the Communist Party of China has abusing practitioners of religion for decades. Any religion that they determine is potentially subversive or dangerous to the goals of the Party, they go to great lengths to squash. It's true of Muslims, especially Turks such as the Uyghurs of Xinjiang (Pang is of Uyghur descent). It's also true of practitioners of Falun Gong, a meditation religion to which Made in China's central figure, Sun Yi, belongs. Falun Gong is the focus of the book, but Uyghur Muslims are always on the periphery of the discussion when they are not at the center, given the enhanced microscope China has recently been put under for its abuses in Xinjiang. And while I always knew Christians were persecuted in China, I also knew there were some approved churches and didn't understand how that worked exactly. But Pang provides the best explanation I have read anywhere:
The state-approved Christian churches in China are political institutions first and foremost. They refute some of the defining features of Christianity, such as a belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Instead, most are affiliated with the government-run Three-Self Patriotic Movement, which espouses self-governance, self-support, and self-propagation, and rejects foreign funding and foreign missionaries. For this reason, many Chinese Christians prefer to worship in informal house churches like Dong's. This is troubling for the Chinese regime, which sees independent churches as a fountainhead of dissent - and indeed, several prominent Chinese human rights lawyers are Christians.
The massive lengths to which the Chinese government goes in order to lessen any chance of subversion is just mind-blowing. It's stuff from Stalin and Hitler stories. Pang writes about May (Sun's wife) in the following excerpt, relaying what happened when she was taken in by the authorities:
There was a knock on the door. Then the officers entered. Dulled by fear, May didn't say anything. The dog barked a few times before retreating into the bedroom. The police replaced her light bulbs with higher-wattage ones before inspecting the apartment. Drawers, storage bins, shoeboxes, gift bags, purses, and suitcases were emptied and thrown aside. Then they arrested May and her brother, leading them away in handcuffs. She initially thought it was going to be a quick detainment, since it was the product of a misunderstanding. She figured they would release her once she proved she was not a Falun Gong practitioner. After all, she was willing to criticize the group for its work against the government. She signed Statement One, repentance for helping a Falun Gong practitioner. She signed Statement Two, a promise of allegiance to the Chinese Communist Party. She faltered on Statement Three. It required her to give the government the name and address of someone who secretly practiced Falun Gong. Sun had never introduced her to his Falun Gong friends. This was intentional, to protect her. He didn't want the government mistaking her as a follower. So she only knew one other practitioner, an old woman. She couldn't give her up. But there was no one else who May could name. Since her brother had only a tangential connection to Falun Gong, they released him after one day. But the authorities refused to let May go until she talked. And so after two weeks of beatings and interrogations, she cracked. As they discharged her into the world, an auntie was about to vanish into a camp.


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While Pang puts the history of China's human rights abuses front and center, attached to that reality is also the reality of our complicity in that system. Most people know that China has a history of forced labor or at least terrible working conditions, but it does not change our spending habits. Pang doesn't just call out our hypocrisy on the issue, however. She explains the psychology of it (which if you know me at all you'll realize that got me all excited). She relays psychological studies from Ulrich Orth and Daniel Kahneman detailing Orth's findings as follows:
The researchers found that our brains have space to hold only one category of questions at a time, and an ethical question - for example, Am I actively contributing to another person's harm by buying this product? - requires more brainpower to answer than, let's say, Does this look better in beige or green? "On one side, we are interested in saving money. On the other hand, most people don't want to impair other people," Orth said. "Balancing those two major decision criteria against each other - that's really difficult." So our brains compartmentalize, and ignore ethical concerns to make faster and easier choices. "What [we're] basically doing is aggregating the decision by saying, 'Yes, I know there are some bad decisions involved in getting cheap products. But on the other hand, it gets me a good product at a good price,'" Orth said. "Separating those two lines of thought, that's what makes the decision easy."
In other words, using a phrase from titan of psychology Daniel Kahneman, our brain has two tracks for thinking: fast and slow. Slow thinking requires more effortful processing. We are more likely to choose fast thinking for exactly this reason, especially when doing something routine such as shopping. It's just better for us, most of the time, to separate out decision-making in this way. Pang explains:
And streamlining decisions still plays an important role in protecting us during dangerous situations today. For example, Kahneman describes a hypothetical scenario where you sit at the wheel of a car that is starting to spin out and you instinctively respond before you become fully aware of what is happening. But this process ceases to serve a good purpose when we are standing in the safe environment of a store. So when we simplify our decision-making, what determines which line of thinking will win out? The answer is neurological. Researchers from Stanford, MIT, and Carnegie Mellon found that when we see an item we like on sale, our brains light up. The more we desire a product, the more blood flow goes to our brains. In their 2007 study, researchers gave each participant twenty dollars to spend. They could keep the money if they refrained from buying anything. Then the researchers watched, from a brain scanner, how the subjects reacted as they viewed the prices of forty different products - all of which were 75 percent off normal retail prices. In particular, they monitored three parts of the brain: the nucleus accumbens, which anticipates pleasure; the mesial prefrontal cortex, which evaluates our gains and losses; and the insula, which anticipates pain. They essentially found that when people saw something they wanted, their brain's pleasure center activated. But when people saw a higher price than they were willing to pay, the part of their brain that processes pain flared instead. This is why we are so tempted by cheap products. We feel pleasure if the price is low. We feel pain if the price is too high. When we are standing in the familiar space of a store or in front of the gentle glow of a computer screen, we don't feel the agony of the workers who made our products as deeply as we feel our desires.
So what can we do about our own broken psychology? How can we remind ourselves of the pain in which we are complicit, enough to change the incentives that drive forced labor? For Julie, the woman who found the SOS note from Sun in her Halloween decorations, she made a choice to help that lone man as much as possible. She even eventually flew to Indonesia to meet him. And it had a lasting effect on her, as Pang writes:
It wasn't just discount stores she was avoiding now. She could no longer see any made in china label without immediately thinking of Sun. Although Julie still purchased Chinese products when they were the only option available, she stopped buying things just because they were cheap.


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So what do we do with this?
While the Reeducation Through Labor (RTL) camps have technically been abolished, they have just been replaced with a worse version of the same thing. While the RTL camps had some sort of international oversight, the prisoners were sent to unregulated detention sites instead. Pang writes that
human rights lawyer Teng Biao saw this right away. "If we are talking about extralegal detention, there are 'black jails,' targeting petitioners. There are 'legal education centers,' targeting mostly the Falun Gong practitioners," he told me. "In all of these kinds of black jails, the detainees are forced to work." According to incomplete statistics from human rights defenders, the number of detainees in so-called legal education centers, also known as brainwashing centers, increased by sixfold as China shut down reeducation through labor camps. In some ways, legal education centers are worse than RTL camps, because the government does not formally recognize the existence of these black-site facilities at all. In 2013, human rights lawyers estimated that thousands had already been tortured to death in these centers. If Sun had been locked in a legal education center instead of Masanjia, his lawyer would not have been able to go through any legal channels to help him. Black jails are considered a state secret, and their guards have physically attacked and temporarily detained foreign journalists for documenting these informal prisons. Although horrific torture and murder often took place in RTL camps, there was at least some minimal oversight. In legal education centers, anyone who cannot be brainwashed can be murdered with impunity.
So you can speak up to the politicians who need to make a difference. You can speak out to Nike or Apple or the NBA, who refuse to acknowledge their complicity as well because they don't want to lose the Chinese market. You can speak with your dollars, refusing to buy cheap products made in China because they're cheap. And you can do all of that by reminding yourself of the stories of these people, over and over again. Reading Made in China is a good start. Another way is to set a Google alert for stories about Uyghurs, Falun Gong, or forced labor in China. Whatever you choose to do, don't ignore these fellow humans any longer.
I received a review copy of Made in China courtesy of Algonquin Books and NetGalley, but my opinions are my own.

Prepare to change your buying habits and read a lot of labels. This book shocked the hell out of me. Apparently I missed the news that "please help" hostage notes had been smuggled into cheap American consumer goods by desperate slaves in Chinese factories, and on more than one occasion.

Chinese citizens are being enslaved, poisoned and poisoned to make your dollar store junk and plastic disposable clothes. They are being forced to work impossible hours, kept in prison camps, tortured, and starved, until their number comes up in a database saying that their organs match. Then poof! They mysteriously disappear from the factories. Absolutely chilling. Even the Nazis didn't slaughter people and sell their organs, although no doubt they would have if it were possible to get wealthier by doing it.

How does author Amelia Pang know any of this? Because of some excellent muckraking and because a few miraculously escaped to tell their stories. Sometimes these former factory slaves are triggered by the sight of a dirt cheap item hanging in Walmart or Target, because they remember being forced to manufacture that very same thing in horrible working conditions, for twelve hours a day or longer.

The number of the enslaved includes something like a million Uighur Muslims, whom the Chinese hate for having the wrong religion (you are supposed to worship the state) and innumerable members of a religious sect called the Falun Gong.

The release of "Made in China" is timely, as it comes right on the heels of the Buy American campaign by President Biden. Read it and weep, then buy American. Better yet, buy LOCAL.

An harrowing account on the cheap goods produced in the cost of human lives and labor. The book opens with an American woman unboxing a Halloween decoration package when she discovered an SOS letter written by a political prisoner in China who had made and packaged the product. This opened the door in an effort to investigate the supply chain that allows a product to be manufactured by forced labor and the items being sold in stores such as Kmart, Target, Walmart and many more big and well known companies.

High praise for Amelia Pang's excellence in writing and her thorough research in the effort to expose the corruption of products manufacturing in Chinese labor camps. Most importantly, what made this book stand out was her effort to not label these labor workers simply as a statistic but humanizing them. She mainly profiles one political prisoner Sun Li whom provides his personal anecdote on the inhumane living condition and the torture these workers have to endure on a daily basis. Amelia Pang writes with such respect and prioritizes in giving voice to some of the workers in the labor camp. As a gifted investigative journalist, she is determined to deliver factual historical, cultural and economic aspect in pointing out this is not solely an issue in China but a larger institutional narrative that created an incentive for China to continue this brutal labor practice. She seamlessly entwined factual reporting and empathetic perspective for an eye-opening and heartbreaking experience.

A thought-provoking and educational piece, Amelia Pang outlines the horrendous manufacturing practice but goes further to provide steps in the role consumers can do to avoid being complicit in human rights violation. Vividly informative with moving cinematic narration illuminating the fearless workers, this is a powerful story about human resilience and portraying the essence of human being whom share similar dreams, hopes and love alike from us.

Thank you to NetGalley and Algonquin Books for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Rating 4.5

Wow. This book gave me chills. I cannot believe I never heard of this letter being found all those years ago. I am so glad to have found this book because it opened my eyes to the horrors of what goes on over seas. This book will keep your interest because the reader will want to find out what happens. We are reading about real people and what they had/have to go through just because of where they live. Yes, some people did brake the law but that does not mean they should be forced to work in a prison camp especially when a lot of the crimes were minor. The author did a good job of telling what happened without giving too much of their own opinion. The reader can tell that the author did a great job of researching their topic. When I was reading this book I did not want to put it down. There are some parts that are really hard to read because they deal with abuse and neglect but we cannot shy away from what really went on. It is important that we know what is happening because then we can make the decision to stop supporting certain companies. It might seem pointless but if more people stop supporting them then it will force them to make changes. Overall, this book was inspirational. It showed how one person no matter how many times he got kicked down he never stopped believing in what was important to him. I would definitely recommend this story.

**Received an advanced copy through NetGalley in return for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. **

We often see books about Chinese manufacturing in terms of economics or politics, but this was a very powerful book bringing to light the unbelievable story behind China's continuing human rights violations and how directly we influence them through our overconsumption. A real eye-opener and extremely compelling! I now think about everything I buy and am checking to see where it was manufactured. This story is emotional and astounding; it leaves the reader wanting to know MORE.

One small criticism is that it's sometimes hard to keep track of the timeline. A little more polish in the organization of the book would help with that, and would help the reader stay connected with the personal story instead of having to stop and re-orient.

Additional information regarding the companies who've been involved in forced labor manufacturing and how to be a socially responsible consumer would be a nice appendix.

Overall, this is a book that should be read by everyone who shops. Period.

This book is more of a cry for help, than it is an explanation of the forced labor situation in China. Although the opening chapter does hold a reader’s attention, the great and excruciating detail about the people discussed in the the chapter makes the reader bored. Sad, but true.

The moral problem, that so much of what Americans buy (because it is cheap), has been manufactured by forced labor, is a thorny one. We Americans want what we want, but we don’t want to pay very much for it.

Most of us in the Western world know that out of respect for the United States we shouldn't but products made in China. But our reasons probably differ slightly. We've likely heard that Chinese workers earn a substantially low wage and they work long hours, which is how China can undercut other countries and their exports. And it's possible ... possible ... that we've heard the term "slave labor" in connection with the Chinese work force. But what does that even mean?

In 2012, a woman in Oregon opened a cheap Halloween headstone decoration that had been purchased at K-Mart. But inside the packaging was a letter - a plea for help - from a Chinese prisoner forced to make and package the cheap, strange decoration. The letter is written in both Chinese and broken English.

Feeling the need to do something, the woman reported the note to a local newspaper, and to Human Rights Watch, the United Nations Human Rights Council, and Anti-Slavery International. Getting a response was not quite so easy.

Enter investigative journalist, Amelia Pang. Amelia proves she has the resources and the tenacity to dig deep into the story.

Through a great deal of work, Pang uncovers the name of the prisoner who wrote the note (she identifies him by using a pseudonym) and tells his remarkable story of a very bright man holding tight to his religious belief. Unfortunately, his religious thoughts are contrary to the official Chinese stance and so he's sent to a prison for 'reform.' His prison is a well-known facility for providing labor for a wide variety of products. There are no protections for prisoners (no masks or goggles or any kind of gear that any other worker in the world might have provided) and the expectations - the required goals - for prisoners is unrealistic. Most prisoners get about three hours of sleep at night because it's the only way to meet their daily goals.

Pang gives us the in-depth story of this particular prisoner, his refusal to spout the Party religion, his punishment - pushed to near death, his ultimate release, and his harsh, brief life after. But she also gives us the broader story. We hear similar stories from other survivors (not surprisingly, it's all the same for women prisoners, plus continued gang rape) and even get a peek at the idea of selling body parts.

This is not an easy book to read. It is horrifying. it is reminiscent of the stories we heard coming out of Nazi Germany after WWII, except that this is now. This is going on in our lifetime, and it is being encouraged by us!
Although China hasn't gone to great lengths to hide these prison 'reform' camps acting as slave labor for industry, they have done just enough to make it difficult to track or prove and so, while most large corporations unofficially know that the Chinese labor making their products might be shopped out to these camps, they don't look too hard and can justify using Chinese labor.

One of the things Pang reminds us is that it is our buying habits ... our need to have the newest thing, our need to have a different thing, our need to have fast and cheap ... that has created the need for this kind of labor. We are to blame for this.

It's easy for us to blame the Chinese. It's easy for us to blame corporations that have their products manufactured this way. But as long as we buy these products, this practice will continue. Will it change anything? Unfortunately probably not.

While shopping this Christmas there were times I picked up an item, saw the "Made in China" label and thought to myself, "I don't really need this stocking stuffer" and put it back. Did it make me feel better? A little. Did it make a difference? Probably not. But if enough people think the same way....

The book is an excellent bit of research and writing. It will make people uncomfortable and therefore many won't even read it, but for those who prefer to be informed, this is a must read.

Looking for a good book? Made in China by Amelia Pang it is a tough, thorough look at Chinese slave labor and how we support it with our own shopping habits.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

A plea for help gets out of a forced labor camp to a concerned woman in the States two years later...uncovering her journey, and a journalist's goal to discover more about how is our cheap crap from China actually made - and who makes it, and under what conditions - a horrifying, painful, scary, and sad discovery that will hopefully shift things and save lives. Readers will find the documentary style fascinating, though some of the tangents a bit long, though the pursuit for justice will likely convince them of the importance of such a work.