Harry Wu reveals Kmart buying from Chinese Army

DETROIT, MI -- Harry Wu, the Chinese human rights activist, revealed that the Kmart Corporation is still buying products for sale in its stores in the United States from a company owned by China's People's Liberation Army.

Wu, who appeared at the Kmart annual meeting of stockholders in Detroit May 20, presented evidence that Kmart purchased some 145,824 pounds of men's PVC rainwear and ponchos in August, September and October 1996 from China Tiancheng, a company the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency confirms is owned by the People's Liberation Army General Political Department.

"This company is owned by the political commissar section of the People's Liberation Army," said Wu. "This is not some joint venture, this is not some capitalist enterprise, these are people who force others to support the Chinese Communist Party, and these are the same people who run the military secret police in China."

Wu read to the shareholders from a letter sent in 1994 by a Kmart vice president to an AFL-CIO official:

"We (Kmart) have never had any dealings with the 'People's Liberation Army' nor do we intend to ever have dealings with them."

"Kmart should be ashamed that it is fooling the American people. Kmart should be ashamed that it is subsidizing Chinese political commissars and strengthening oppression in China," Wu told Kmart chairman Floyd Hall.

Wu requested a meeting with Hall to present his evidence and asked that Kmart immediately cease buying any products from companies owned by the Chinese People's Liberation Army, remove what remains from Kmart's shelves, and offer a refund to any consumer who returns one of the raincoats or ponchos made by China Tiancheng. He further requested a public apology for violating what its officer claimed was Kmart's policy in 1994.

Wu is executive director of the Laogai Research Foundation based in Milpitas, Calif. He attended the Kmart meeting with representatives of United Food and Commercial Workers.