In my own name and on behalf of my clients, 12 authorized workers, whose names are included hereunder, as well as all the 40 millions workers suffering from forced labor across China, I hereby lodge a complaint under article 26 to 34 of the ILO Constitution against the Government of the People’s Republic of China for violations of the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) and The Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105).
The present complaint rests on numerous instances of gross violations of these fundamental ILO Conventions (C29 & C105), committed and perpetrated in the past 20+ years by the China authorities and numerous employers against the country’s 40 million workers across China, including:
1.In accordance with Article 1 of The Forced Labour Convention (No. 29), the term forced or compulsory labour shall mean all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily.
In accordance with Article 1 of The Forced Labour Convention (No. 29), Each Member of the International Labour Organisation which ratifies this Convention undertakes to suppress the use of forced or compulsory labour in all its forms within the shortest possible period.
In accordance with Article 1(b) of The Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105), Each Member of the International Labour Organisation which ratifies this Convention undertakes to suppress and not to make use of any form of forced or compulsory labour–(b)(b) as a method of mobilising and using labour for purposes of economic development.
2.On the contrary, The Chinese government, especially the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Rural Development, the State Post Office, the State Administration of Market Supervision, the State Administration of Taxation and other departments, has gone against the trend for the past 20+ years.
Chinese government websites and normative documents at all levels, as well as administrative regulations of the State Council, have clearly stipulated that human resources and social security departments at all levels have the legal responsibility to investigate and handle labor supervision cases based on the principle of territorial jurisdiction. However, In the first instance trial of my lawsuit against the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security for failing to fulfill its statutory duties in accordance with the law, two officials from the Ministry, Le Yibo and Li Yansong, denied in court their statutory duty to investigate labor supervision cases and clearly stated that their department had never investigated any labor supervision cases in the past few decades.
Fish begins to stink at the head， other levels of labor administrative departments have followed suit.The lowest level of labor administrative departments at the county and district levels are accustomed to shirking responsibilities and engaging in lazy governance. Even if the parties involved in administrative litigation, due to the distorted value orientation of judges at all levels of courts in China, the vast majority of cases are ruled in vain and protected by judges at all levels of courts, ultimately resulting in no resolution.
3. It is precisely the laissez faire and condoning policies of the Chinese government at all levels from top to bottom that have led to the rampant spread of illegal labor trade throughout the country. Even now, there is no cover up for labor trade qualifications and licenses, and everything is ignored. Through false labor trade contracts between two companies, the labor value of others is openly bought and sold. However, there has not been a case in which a worker claims the invalidity of a labor contract due to coercion or fraud that has been supported by the court.
4. It is precisely based on this social environment that many local officials publicly claim in the media that “whoever cannot get along with the enterprise, I will not get along with whoever cannot”, as well as the law enforcement offices claim in public that “Serve the overall situation”.
5. They allow and condone the protection of infringing and illegal enterprises, selectively ignoring the qualifications and licenses of labor trade.
6. They allow and condone the protection of infringing and illegal enterprises, openly violate Article 60 (2) of the Labor Contract Law, and arbitrarily withhold and deduct the labor remuneration paid by the employing unit to the staffing agencies.
7. They allow and condone the protection of infringing and illegal enterprises, openly violating Article 63 of the Labor Contract Law. Traded workers have the right to equal pay for equal work as employees of the employing unit. If the employing unit does not have workers in similar positions, the remuneration shall be determined based on the remuneration of workers in the same or similar positions in the place where the employing unit is located.
8. They allow and condone the protection of infringing and illegal enterprises, openly violating Article 66 of the Labor Contract Law and Article 3 of the Interim Provisions on Labor Trade. Employers can only use Traded workers in temporary, auxiliary, or substitute job positions.
9. They allow and condone the protection of infringing and illegal enterprises, openly violating Article 4 of the Provisional Regulations on Labor Trade. The employing units shall strictly control the number of dispatched workers and the number of traded workers used shall not exceed 10% of their total employment.
10. They allow and condone the protection of infringing and illegal enterprises, openly violating Article 72 of the Labor Law, and failing to pay social security funds for workers.
11. Even they allow and condone the protection of infringing and illegal enterprises, openly abuse the form of the law, allow companies to sign false commercial contracts, and openly violate or conceal the labor value of laborers in buying and selling transactions.
12. The failure of human resources and social security departments at all levels of the Chinese government to lawfully investigate and handle labor supervision cases is the root cause of the rampant illegal labor trade and forced labor through false outsourcing in today’s Chinese society. In addition, the distorted values of the court and judge system have further contributed to the proliferation of this form of abuse of the law for forced labor crimes throughout the country.
13. Article 244 of the Criminal Law of China defines the crime of forced labor solely as the act of forcing others to work by means of violence, physical threat of force, or restriction of personal freedom, which blatantly violates any form of forced labor defined in the Forced Labor Convention, especially in the form of abuse of the law.
14. The crime of trafficking in persons under Article 240 of the Chinese Criminal Law is also a blatant violation of the United Nations definition of the crime of trafficking in persons. It only defines trafficking in women and children as a criminal act and does not include the criminal act of trafficking in the labor exaction of others through forced labor.
All of this is based on the distorted values of the Chinese government, and the Court judges which sacrifices the lower class of society to achieve rapid economic development.
These forms of forced labor are all achieved through illegal labor dispatch contracts or fake labor outsourcing contracts. Illegal labor dispatch and fake labor outsourcing are both forced labor practices that use coercion or fraud to obtain management and control advantages over workers by signing labor or service contracts with them, and then use this advantage to hand the workers over to third-party employers for management and dominance!
The crime of forced labor stipulated in Article 244 of the Criminal Law of China refers to the use of violence, threats, or restrictions on personal freedom to engage in forced labor against the will of workers!
The threat refers to the domination of labor through non-contact means such as non violent force or power and unequal advantages!
So the key to the problem lies in the coercion and fraudulent behavior in the labor contract!
Coercion refers to the illegal domination that violates the will of labor arbitration by using the management advantage established by the existing labor relationship icon as a prerequisite!
Fraud is the act of intentionally concealing the true situation or intentionally informing false information to induce workers to make erroneous expressions of intent in signing labor contracts!
For example, intentionally concealing that they do not have a labor dispatch qualification permit, intentionally concealing their true employment relationship, using outsourcing to cover up labor dispatch, and intentionally concealing the labor remuneration paid by the employing unit to the workers!
Why is forced labor crime rampant in China?
Forced labor refers to any form of labor that is managed and dominated against the will of the worker. Any form mentioned here includes violence.
Although China agreed to join the 1930 Forced Labor Convention (C29) and the 1957 Abolition of Forced Labor Convention (C105) on April 20, 2022, the situation has worsened in the opposite direction, with at least 40 million workers nationwide suffering from forms of forced labor oppression such as illegal labor dispatch and outsourcing.
Even administrative agencies, courts, and procuratorates are extensively using forms of forced labor such as illegal labor dispatch and outsourcing.
China has not yet joined 4 out of 10 basic International Labour Organization conventions:
C087 – Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87)
C098 – Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98)
C187 – Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 2006 (No. 187)
P029 – Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labour Convention, 1930
and 2 priority management conventions out of 4:
C081 – Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81)
C129 – Labour Inspection (Agriculture) Convention, 1969 (No. 129)
Due to the excessive emphasis on the role of companies and enterprises in economic development, Chinese society has chosen to ignore the dignity and dignity of the working class, which violates Article 1 (b) of the C105- Elevation of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105), a nationwide form of forced labor carried out in the name of economic development. As a result, administrative agencies openly declare that “whoever goes with companies, I cannot go with them.” The slogan promoted by China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate and courts is “serving the overall situation,” openly trampling on the fairness of the judiciary, and causing all legal provisions and trials to take shape under distorted values. Judicial corruption is the root cause of the rampant problem of forced labor crimes.
China has not yet joined the C087 and C098 international conventions, and it firmly denies workers’ freedom of association. In the context of judicial corruption and non union organization confrontation, it is not difficult to understand why forced labor is rampant in Chinese society.
Even the Chinese Central People’s Government has announced on its website that the legal responsibilities of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security include investigating and handling major cases in accordance with the law. However, in the case of Zhang Cungong’s lawsuit against the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security for failing to fulfill its legal responsibilities, two officials from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security explicitly admitted that they have never investigated any cases.
Such a country, where every pore is filled with the blood and tears of forced laborers, is an evil and hypocritical nation. As the world’s second-largest economy, such a country is an insult to contemporary human civilization.
In this situation, I and the workers’ representatives，have to file this appeal against the Chinese government for not complying with the International Labour Organization’s Forced Labour Convention, in accordance with Article 26 to 34 of the Constitution.
Therefore, we call on the council to appoint an investigator to review this appeal. The complainant reserves the right to submit supplementary information at an appropriate time.

Yours sincerely
Howard Zhang Cun Gong
Tel:+86 186 0103 8079
E-mail: 445737425@qq.com