Amelia Pang is a journalist who has been published in The New Republic, Mother Jones, and The New York Times Sunday Review, among other publications. She is also the author of Made in China: A Prisoner, an SOS Letter, and the Hidden Cost of America’s Cheap Goods, which documents China’s forced labor system. Her book was shortlisted for the J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award co-administered by Columbia Journalism School and the Neiman Foundation for journalism at Harvard University. In this lightly edited Q&A, we discussed an SOS note found in Halloween decorations that were made in China, the past and present realities of China’s Laogai system, and steps every consumer can take to impact the global labor system.
Amelia PangIllustration by Kate Copeland
Q: Your book opens with a woman in Oregon, opening up Halloween decorations to find an SOS message from a political prisoner in a Chinese labor camp. How did you come across that story and what first made you w
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