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Amnesty International blasts China’s ‘torture tools’ production

Associated Press

BEIJING – Chinese production and export of police equipment primarily used for torture, such as electric shock wands and neck-and-wrist cuffs connected by a chain, has grown dramatically, enabling human rights violations at home and abroad, Amnesty International said in a report today.

More than 130 Chinese companies, up from 28 about a decade ago, are now engaged in the development, production and export of law enforcement tools, most of which are legitimate, but many of which are inherently cruel and inhumane, the London-based human rights group said.

The 38-page report also cited as examples spiked batons and restraint chairs with a desk-like surface in front where arms can be shackled, often with ankle cuffs beneath that force detainees into painful contortions.

“There is no excuse whatsoever for allowing the manufacturing and trade in equipment for which the primary purpose is to torture or inflict cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment on people,” Patrick Wilcken, security trade and human rights researcher at Amnesty International, said in a statement.

China explicitly bans torture and mistreatment of inmates, and it strongly denies widespread allegations that torture is often used by Chinese police and Communist Party investigators.

Amnesty says it has documented a wide range of physical torture in China, including the use of electric shock batons.

Amnesty urged China in the report to ban the production and export of several of the kinds of equipment it says are torture tools or inherently cruel, especially to countries with poor human rights records. It said the tools are being shipped to Cambodia, Nepal, Congo, Egypt, Ghana, Madagascar, Senegal and Uganda.