Tune in to hear Amelia Pang discuss her book Made in China in conversation with Rayhat Asat! This is a VIRTUAL EVENT please register here
In 2012, an Oregon mother named Julie Keith opened up a package of Halloween decorations. The cheap foam headstones had been five dollars at Kmart, too good a deal to pass up. But when she opened the box, something shocking fell out: an SOS letter, handwritten in broken English.
“Sir: If you occassionally buy this product, please kindly resend this letter to the World Human Right Organization. Thousands people here who are under the persicuton of the Chinese Communist Party Government will thank and remember you forever.”
The note’s author, Sun Yi, was a mild-mannered Chinese engineer turned political prisoner, forced into grueling labor as punishment for campaigning for the freedom to join a forbidden meditation movement. He was imprisoned alongside petty criminals, civil rights activists, and tens of thousands of others the Chinese government had decided to “reeducate,” carving foam gravestones and stitching clothing for more than fifteen hours a day.
In Made in China, investigative journalist Amelia Pang pulls back the curtain on Sun’s story and the stories of others like him, including the persecuted Uyghur minority group, whose abuse and exploitation is rapidly gathering steam. What she reveals is a closely guarded network of laogai—forced labor camps—that power the rapid pace of American consumerism. Through extensive interviews and firsthand reportage, Pang shows us the true cost of America’s cheap goods and shares what is ultimately a call to action—urging us to ask more questions and demand more answers from the companies we patronize.
About the Author:
Amelia Pang is an award-winning, investigative journalist of Uyghur and Chinese descent. Her work has been published in The New Republic, Mother Jones, and The New York Times Sunday Review, among other publications. She is currently an editor at EdTech Magazine. She is the author of Made in China: A Prisoner, an SOS Letter, and the Hidden Cost of America's Cheap Goods. It was shortlisted for the 2019 J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award, co-administered by Columbia Journalism School and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. She lives in Washington, DC.
About the Moderator
Rayhan Asat is a Yale World Fellow, human rights lawyer, and advocate. A graduate of Harvard Law School and former anti-corruption attorney at a major U.S. law firm, Rayhan specializes in international law, international human rights law, and compliance with best business practices. Her legal and policy work centers around enforcing international human rights norms, civil liberties, curtailing forced labor, and promoting corporate accountability. She advised the World Bank and OECD to design Human-Centered Business Integrity Principles. She works with civil society, diplomats, lawmakers, and businesses to address human rights concerns, especially the atrocities in Xinjiang. Rayhan has testified before the parliaments around the world including the Canadian House of Commons, the UK House of Commons, and the Lithuanian parliament.
Rayhan is a frequent speaker at national and international law conferences. She has been featured in the New York Times, BBC, CNN, Voice of America, The Hill, the Globe and Mail, The UK Mirror, Al Jazeera, Quartz, Japanese TV shows, and many other media outlets. In addition to legal journals, her writing has appeared in Foreign Policy, NBC, The Hill, The Platform, and many other prominent publications.