China rejects claims it sent criminals to work abroad

China's Ministry of Commerce rejected foreign media reports Tuesday that Chinese companies had been sending convicted criminals to work on projects abroad in order to prevent overcrowding in prisons.

This type of reporting was "nonsense with no facts or evidence," the ministry said in an official statement on its website. Under China's codes on overseas contracted projects and labor cooperation, "enterprises can only send staff who are eligible and have no criminal records."

Convicted criminals and people sent for reeducation through labor camps were pro-hibited from traveling abroad under Chinese law, it added.

The ministry did not name any particular news organizations, but the Xinhua News Agency quoted sources from the ministry as saying that the reports were featured in the Japan Times, Britain's The Guardian newspaper, the Washington Times and Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper.

A story published by The Guardian on July 29 reported that "thousands of Chinese convicts, for example, have been pressed into service on projects undertaken by State-run Chinese companies in Sri Lanka."

"Chinese convicts also have been dispatched to the Maldives ... building 4,000 houses," the report added, without citing a source.

The story was written by Brahma Chellaney, a professor of Strategic Studies at the New Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research.

Agencies