From: Students for a Free Tibet

For Immediate Release January 10, 1995

Contact: John Hocevar Tel:(212) 481-3569 Fax: (212) 779-9245 email:ustcsft@igc.apc.org

On February 12 at 8:30 A.M., the U.S. Tibet Committee and Students for a Free Tibet will hold a "Toycott" demonstration at the International Toy Fair at 23rd St. and Fifth Avenue.

The Toycott is an ongoing boycott of toys made in China, and is sponsored by the AFL-CIO, Tibet support groups, human rights organizations, and leading Chinese dissidents. The Toycott sends a strong message to Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, who once claimed that "the West only cares about profits and not human rights".

All are welcome to join us in reminding the Chinese leadership that the American public will not give our children gifts that help fund the Chinese government and their continued oppression and exploitation of Chinese and Tibetan citizens.

* * * * *

Why should America boycott toys made in China?

Human rights abuses in China are mounting. An estimated 12-16 million persons are imprisoned in hundreds of gulags in China and Tibet, most for political crimes, for practicing their religion or even for "opposing progress". The people who fill these gulags are many of the students and workers who were prosecuted for demonstrating for freedom in Tiananmen Square. They live and work under the worst possible conditions, in shifts that can last 24 hours, and receive little or no pay. Those who do not make quota are often tortured or executed. One out of every ten Tibetans has spent ten years or more in such forced labor camps. Toys and toy parts are among items manufactured at these prison sites.