U.S. Court Convicts Chinese Company of Using Forced Prison Labor

On February 28, 2001, a United States Court in Trenton, New Jersey convicted under U.S. law the first Chinese company of using forced prison labor. On February 28, 2001, Allied International Manufacturing Stationary Co., Ltd. (AIMCO) of Nanjing, China, pleaded guilty to a one-count criminal charge that it violated a 1932 law prohibiting transportation of goods made by prison labor into the U.S. A U.S. district judge fined the company $50,000 for the violation. AIMCO operated what was believed to be the world’s biggest binder clip factor in the 1990s and exported more than 134 million black metal spring clips to the U.S. between August 1995 and June 1997…[more]