You probably don’t need anyone to tell you how hard it is to live ethically as a human being on Planet Earth in 2021, but here’s another book to increase your anxiety about how the way you live your life is causing abject misery in other parts of the world. Forced labor is nothing new. Slavery in the West Indies was one of the main drivers of Britain’s wealth in the 18th century, and cotton plantations in the American South transformed the US into the world’s foremost industrial superpower. Since the 1930’s, China has been using forced labor camps known as the “laogai” or re-education through labor system. Modeled after Soviet gulags, these de facto prison-factories have made China the world’s second largest economy.

Amelia Pang’s book is an in-depth look at what happens inside one of these prisons — specifically to one former prisoner named Sun Yi who underwent torture, forced feedings, and inhumane living conditions at Masanjia, one of the most well known labor camps, where he was also forced to work grueling 15-24 hour days assembling cheap knick-knacks sold by major retailers in the US. Sun Yi’s story is interspersed with chapters about the history of the laogai system, the Chinese government’s authoritarian crackdowns on religious practitioners, political dissidents, and ethnic minorities, and our complicity in allowing this system to flourish as consumers of cheap, fast, inessential goods in the West that are so often unused and discarded.

With only 217 pages of narrative between prologue and epilogue, this is a very short book. As a result, some of the topics brought up in these chapters feel rushed through and reductive, especially when there is so much text dedicated to describing Sun Yi’s life before he was imprisoned for his involvement with Falun Gong, a big and highly organized religious group. I personally didn’t feel that I needed to know how much potential Sun Yi had and how much love he and his wife had for each other to know that he shouldn’t have been subjected to the brutal treatment he experienced. But this is an important story that everyone should be aware of and one that Pang personally traveled to China to investigate, often at great personal risk.

Most people probably never think about where their purchases come from, but to be conscious consumers, we need to understand the vast, complicated, multinational supply chains responsible for things we buy on a daily basis. Halloween decorations, Christmas tree ornaments, holiday cards, artificial flowers, down coats, leather purses, binder clips, photo mugs, dog toys, bike brakes, machinery parts, electronics, school supplies — these are all things that have been known to be manufactured in laogai prison camps which often masquerade as rehabilitation centers, drug detox facilities.

Pang ends with a few words of guidance on what you can do in the face of such a gargantuan problem that seems unsolvable. But two things have been known to pressure the Chinese government to act — financial pushback and losing face on the world stage. As individuals, we can be more conscious about our consumption patterns. Embrace minimalism and don’t buy things you don’t need. Pang advocates for holding brands accountable for their social responsibility practices so that they will in turn hold their suppliers accountable, although many do not have the luxury of making these ethical and sustainable distinctions when they shop. There doesn’t seem to be any easy solutions in sight. Although ending China’s draconian penal practices is one of the few rare issues that enjoy bipartisan support in Congress, there doesn’t seem to be any easy solutions in sight. Even so, this book is a quick and fascinating read, and I highly recommend it.