4 September 1997

Dear Olivier,

First of all I hope that you are well, I trust that you are overworked, as usual! Thank you for sharing with us your ideas concerning the granting of the GSP to China by the EU. Before we start doing anything, we need to think carefully about what we really want to achieve.

Firstly, as you know, prison labour and the export of prison-made products are not the primary focus of Human Rights in China. We have no first-hand research material on these topics, therefore we lack the authority to deal with them in international fora such as the European Parliament. As follows from ongoing internal debates within HRIC, these issues need to be extremely nuanced. People who work on prisons all think prisoners should have the opportunity to work. Prisoners work in most Western countries and, in some cases, the products they produce are even exported. However, HRIC is definitely working about prison conditions and labour conditions in general, including from a legal standpoint, which brings me to my second point.

You base your idea on the request included in the McMillan-Scott report concerning an investigation on forced labour and prison labour in Chinese prisons. However, we would like to know whether the renewal of the GSP is dependent on other, broader conditions, such as working conditions, welfare and trade union rights. If that were the case, the scope of your project would be broadened and other NGOs could contribute their expertise in specific fields, such as the China Labour Bulletin in Hong Kong. Therefore, before we take any action, we would like to know exactly the terms governing the GSP. According to Mr. Marin's reply to your written question, it seems that the necessary information is included in the regulations CE No 3281/94 and CE No 1256/96. Would it be possible for your office to send us these documents, or any other that you think would be helpful? We would greatly appreciate it.

Thirdly, as you explained to us and as we saw with the case of Burma, the Commission can only take action if it receives a detailed complaint. Which means, as you underlined yourself, that this process is a long-term and very complex one. HRIC's limited staff and resources may be better used if they are focused on its priorities: political imprisonment; the ratification of the two human rights covenants and the monitoring thereof;

and human rights education in China proper. In addition, you probably know already that Sophia Woodman, who is in charge of HRIC's Hong Kong office, focuses her research on social and economic rights. Therefore, following on my second point, I wonder if, in the first place, we could try to increase the awareness of the European Parliament and Commission on labour-social issues in China, through the circulation of documents and hearings of witnesses, and regardless of the issue strictly related to the export of prison-made products. This actually brings us back to your suggestion about "triggering interesting mechanisms" along the way. This could constitute a first step in an investigation which would become specifically related to the GSP at a later stage.

We are very interested in continuing to talk with you about this project. HRIC has wonderful experiences working with the TRP, and I am sure that in the future we will have more and more opportunities. We will be in touch with you concerning other matters, such as next year's Commission. We look forward to your reaction to our comments.

Best regards!

Xiao Qiang

Executive Director