50% owned by CSG.22 It has advertised many types of law enforcement equipment including water cannon, armoured vehicles, handcuffs, batons, electric shock stun batons, “anti-riot pistols”, less lethal grenade launchers and several types of crowd control ammunition.23 Norinco has exported equipment to many countries around the world.24 Poly Technologies, a subsidiary of the China Poly Group Corporation, is a large arms trading company with headquarters in Beijing and offices in other countries. The company has advertised a wide range of law enforcement equipment including batons, spiked shields, electric shock stun batons and various types of mechanical restraints.25 The company stated in 2010 that it was among the top 100 foreign trade companies in China with dozens of domestic and overseas subsidiaries and representative offices.26 types of law enforcement equipment Chinese companies manufacture a wide range of policing, prison and other equipment, including: n Mechanical restraints: handcuffs, leg cuffs, combination leg and hand cuffs, thumb cuffs and various kinds of fixed restraints, including restraint chairs. n Electric shock weapons: electric shock stun batons, projectile dart-firing stun guns, hand applied electric shock stun guns and electric shock stun shields. n Striking weapons: batons and spiked batons. n Toxic chemical irritants: CS gas (tear gas) cartridges, grenades and launchers, and pepper or OC (Oleoresin Capsicum) sprayers. n Kinetic impact projectiles: rounds (e.g. baton rounds/rubber bullets) and launchers. n Law enforcement vehicles: including water cannon and armoured vehicles. Much of this equipment can have a legitimate use in law enforcement if used correctly and in line with international standards for law enforcement, most importantly the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms, the UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials, and the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.27 When used responsibly by well-trained and fully accountable law enforcement officials, such equipment can help prevent and minimize deaths, injuries and harm to assailants, suspects and detainees, while also protecting the police and prison officers themselves. Yet such equipment can have unintended dangerous and even lethal effects if not used carefully, and is also open to abuse. Amnesty International has documented a wide range of human rights violations – including torture and other ill-treatment in custody, as well as excessive and abusive use of force in the policing of public assemblies – perpetrated by law enforcement officials using such “legitimate” equipment, often with devices as simple as handcuffs.28 However, some types of equipment offered to law enforcers are particularly easy to abuse or are prone to causing injury or fatality. Sometimes this is the result of poor design. Certain types of baton rounds/rubber bullets, for instance, are so inaccurate that they cannot be used safely. In such cases, Amnesty International and Omega recommend a suspension of production, trade, transfer and use of the particular type of equipment, while a thorough, independent review based on international human rights law and standards is carried out by independent medical, legal, police and other experts to ascertain whether the equipment is fit for use in law enforcement in certain prescribed circumstances. Finally, some weapons and other devices promoted to police, prison and other security authorities, have no legitimate use for law enforcement and are inherently abusive as their use constitutes, or poses a substantial risk of, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Amnesty International and Omega have consistently called for a total prohibition on the production, trade, transfer and use of such inherently inhumane equipment. 6 China’s Trade in Tools of Torture and Repression Amnesty International – Index: ASA 17/042/2014