Note: This is an encore edition of Reader's Corner. The episode originally aired in June 2021.
In 2012, an Oregon mother named Julie Keith opened up a package of Halloween decorations, only to find something shocking inside: an SOS letter, handwritten in broken English. The note’s author, Sun Yi, was a mild-mannered Chinese engineer turned political prisoner, forced into grueling labor. In Made in China, investigative journalist Amelia Pang pulls back the curtain on Sun’s story and the stories of others like him, including the persecuted Uyghur minority group whose abuse and exploitation is rapidly gathering steam. What she reveals is a closely guarded network of laogai—forced labor camps—that power the rapid pace of American consumerism.
Amelia Pang is an award-winning, investigative journalist. Her work has been published in The New Republic, Mother Jones, and The New York Times Sunday Review, among other publications. She is an editor at EdTech Magazine. Made in China is her first book.