Tonight on Sunday ` are you using products made by slaves? If you don't work, they'll beat you. If you don't work, they'll taser you. The Kiwi caught inside China's prison slave system. All sorts of electrical appliances exported all over the world. Products of torture and beatings. Forced labour or slave labour really amount to the same thing. The dark secret behind 'made in China'. He was white as a sheet. (LAUGHS) The day of the perfect storm. I was standing up and trying to get my trousers on. The team that never played. We're all still alive as well, which is quite cool. Kia ora. I'm Miriama Kamo. Slavery's been abolished, right? Wrong says a Kiwi businessman. Daniel Cancian says he was a slave for four and a half years in a Chinese prison. The Wellington man says he was forced under threat of torture to make consumer goods to sell to the West. Daniel says we should wake up to the reality that many of these cheap goods end up in our homes. Here's Ian Sinclair. TENSE MUSIC If you don't work, they'll beat you. If you don't work, they'll taser you. ZAP! Danny Cancian, jailed in China. They'll give you sleep depravation. It's` It's horrific, absolutely horrific. A survivor, he says, of four years of beatings and torture under forced labour. As long as they` they have their` their bottom-line profit, what do they care? It's` It's disgusting. It was a very different Danny who went to China on a business trip four years ago. I actually invented some medical equipment that helped the disabled, the elderly, the sick, the dying, transferring to showers and baths without hurting themselves. His invention, the Shower Buddy, manufactured in Fushan, in South China's Guangdong province. For most entrepreneurs, Fushan is an industrial Mecca. But at a business dinner, Danny's whole world exploded. They decided to come downstairs and beat the foreigner, teach him a lesson. They were a gang of five men. I didn't touch them or anything, but they wanted to fight me. Later they would confess to police the three attacked because he bumped into one of them in a doorway. One of them had got behind me, picked up a wooden chair and smashed me over the back of the head. They put a big cut in the back of my head. Anyway, I put my hand on my head, and there's blood pouring out of my head, and I remember stumbling forward. He managed to knock one of them to the ground. He was getting up. I thought I'd better stop him, so I just stepped and kicked him one time, and in the side of the face. I didn't even know where I was kicking him, but I got him right on the side of the face, and he just rolled over. Someone` Someone died, you know, for, for nothing, for nothing at all. Why was I convicted? I was convicted for over self-defence. I defended myself too much. What do you say to that charge? What do you say to that charge? I think it's bullshit. In Danny's book, the odds were stacked against him. When you're hit on the head, you don't know what you're doing, and you're in survival mode, right. You don't know what you're doing, that's the thing. But you just wanna survive the situation, you know, and I` I just` I just survived the situation. What did the Chinese say to that? 'One man died,' that's it. 'This is China.' For one Wellington businessman China would now reveal its dark side. Clandestine footage gives only a glimpse of China's secret network of forced labour camps. There's 5400 prisoners and 5400 prisoners got marched to the factories every morning and marched back again every night. And you were one of them? And you were one of them? I was one of them, yes. On Google, he shows the layout of Guangdong Prison. In that factory is where we were making the products. The aim ` manufacturing goods from clothes to electronic parts for Western markets under forced labour. 'You must do the labour. You must love labour. You must love the motherland.' This is what we had to recite all the time, you know. And if you don't work,... This is what we call the torture block. This is Block 14. It was here the Kiwi learned the price of disobedience. The prisoner guy that was in charge of training us saw that I'd worn sandals and then he wacked me right in the face, and my mistake ` instinctively I just` I just came back with an uppercut, and I knocked the guy out, you see. The police tasered me, and they started beating me with their batons, and then they pepper-sprayed me. He was off to the torture block and a tiny cell 3m long, 1m wide. From 9 in the morning till` till 9pm at night, you've gotta sit there with your legs folded and arms folded in there when you first go in. And if you` if you get tired and you lean against the walls, they'll come in and start tasering and pepper-spraying ya, you know, and beating ya. At night he was only allowed to sleep for 20 minutes at a time. This went on for two weeks. I prayed to God every day. I said to Him` I said, 'I'm going to get out of this, 'I'm gonna go home. I'm gonna see my wife. I'm gonna see my family. I'm not gonna die in this place.' Danny says his prison was part of a network of highly profitable forced labour camps. And all the bad solder fumes would come up and really affect them, you know. And on the web he finds a product he says was likely made by his cellmates. How do you know that came from your prison? This here? Well, obviously it's been wound very roughly, for a start, OK? Now, prisoners do these manually manually, because you can't do them by machine, OK? Now, to do them manually you've gotta be very fast and do it very quickly. It's an electrical component called an inductor, all on a company website he recognises. All of these go out to the factory and then they dress them up a bit, put covers on, and then they export them overseas. Danny says while winding that wire, he learned even sickness is no excuse. I've got arthritis in my arm, and I can't straighten my arm, OK? Now, I said to them, 'I can't pull wire cos pulling wire is very, very hard, cos you've gotta do this every day all day. Five or six of them come out with their tasers. They loved tasering in the mouth. Oh my God, it feels like your head's gonna explode. You just` It's just horrific. Next up ` where do the products Danny says he made under torture end up? They know they get their products made in China. They should find out where their products are being made, where they originate from. I'm here to stop what these` what the Chinese are doing in these prisons. Danny Cancian recently released from a Chinese jail. We're buying the products these prisons make. They've gotta stop using forced labour to make export products. Kiwi businessman Danny had found himself a prisoner in China's nationwide system of labour camps. We all love cheap products from China, and they come into NZ by the boatload, but would we feel the same if we were told that many of those products components made by slave labour, prisoners working under the threat of torture? Danny says the electrical components he was forced to make could easily find their way into our living rooms. These are used in televisions, in cameras, in all sorts of electrical appliances. And, like, you know, these` these are exported all over the world. It's a huge, huge operation. There were about 10 factories there. You can see the trucks coming and going all day. There's so many trucks coming in and going from it. It's just` It's just a forced labour camp, that's it. Danny says the prison made products for some leading players in the travel industry. We were also making headphones, disposable headphones for the airlines. How do you know? Cos when we made them they, all the boxes had the` the names of the companies on them when they got sent out. All the airlines he recognised were based outside of NZ. Are you saying that the headphones that the passengers wear could be made by forced or slave labour? That's correct. Definitely. Definitely, cos we were making them. To back his point, Danny showed us he knows the way round a headset. What the prisoners would do is do all the soldering. They solder all this on, these wires together, OK, and then clip it all back together. According to Danny, it was do the work or... Or they'll put you in the lion's chair. It's actually like a baby's high chair, right, but what it is, they shackle your feet in, they handcuff you to it. They leave you in that chair for one to two to three weeks, right, and in that chair you've gotta do all your business; you're not allowed out. When you're in that chair, they beat you with batons, they taser ya, they'll pepper-spray ya. They pepper-sprayed one guy so much in that chair cos he didn't wanna work that all the skin peeled off his face. It was horrific. Danny maintains any airline which is using slave-made goods may never know the truth. Because they send them out to their state-owned enterprises, their companies outside. Danny identified one of these front companies just an hour's drive from the prison, where he says the headphones went. Their companies outside repackage them, and then they'll send them on... The alleged middleman would not tell us which airlines received the headsets. So the trail ran dry. Danny's claims raise serious questions, but it's impossible for us to verify which airlines are using prison-made headsets. We can't identify the airlines named by Danny for legal reasons. But we did approach one of the major carriers, and they emphatically denied using slave-made headsets. However, following our approach, the airline did confirm it would be making spot checks on its Asian manufacturers within the next month. Well, Amnesty International would say it's really the responsibility of the company to check thoroughly. Amnesty's message ` don't just take the word of suppliers. Often Chinese factories will in fact be a front for labour happening in other places, in other factories, possibly forced labour in prisons and detention centres. But we don't believe that takes away the responsibility of companies to check as thoroughly as they can that products aren't being made by forced labour. Their warning ` wake up to the truth behind many of our cheap goods from China. Forced labour or slave labour, really amounts to the same thing for us. The evidence that Amnesty International has is of the widespread use of savage beatings, of electrocution, of prisoners and of people being shackled into agonising positions for long periods of time. So that's entirely consistent with the information we have on what is going on in Chinese detention centres. Now Danny Cancian is back home with his wife, Amanda, his life of torture and fear seems a world away. Look at the ocean, Mandy. Isn't it it beautiful? Look at the ocean, Mandy. Isn't it it beautiful? It is. Look at the skies` blue skies. I never saw the sky for four years, never saw the sun for four years. It's so gorgeous down here. But returning home was a bittersweet moment for Danny. I've lost everything. For a start, I've lost all my property, which is really nothing. The property doesn't mean anything to me. Happy birthday, Ma. I lost four years with my wife, and the main one that I lost was my mum. She passed away four months before I was released from the prison. I'm always with you. I'm gonna be with you forever. And though it's gone, Danny's life behind bars is not forgotten. Number one thing is I wanna help those prisoners that are overseas and their families to be reunited. Many countries have an agreement to repatriate prisoners overseas so they can serve their time at home. NZ does not. The number one focus in my life now is to try and get NZ and China to sign a prisoner-transfer treaty. His other focus ` warn Kiwis about the dangers of doing business in China. Be very very careful when you go to China for business. Be very, very, very careful, Because you don't actually understand the Chinese law system,... (SPEAKS MANDARIN) that's what I used to say, which is, 'Chinese law is bad.' Well, if you want to learn more about Danny Cancian's campaign, the information is on our website. Next ` the day the perfect storm forever changed the lives of 11 young Dunedin men. The Barmy Army can't believe it. Just who are these old codgers who've invaded The Oval? And why are they having their photos taken? ALL CHANT: England! England! Welcome back. It's the team that never played, a group of talented young cricketers who never made it on the field. They set off for the universities Easter tournament to defend their national title, but then disaster intervened. Now for the first time in 45 years, they've re-united to remember the life-changing event which got in the way. John Hudson in Dunedin. CHANTING Dunedin ` England's playing NZ, but that's not what's got the crowd going. The Barmy Army can't believe it. Just who are these old codgers who've invaded The Oval and why are they having their photos taken? It's actually the first time we've actually sat down and told each other what happened to each other. Camera two, are we? And we're all still alive as well, which is quite cool. They are the team that never played. The Otago University cricket team of 1968. Back then, fit, clever young men soon to become teachers, lawyers, accountants, but first there was a cricket series to win. How important was this Easter tournament? Oh, very important. Yeah, we had a very strong team. We were probably favourites. The previous Otago team were champions, and to defend that title this team was headed for Palmerston North. We went up to Lyttelton, got on the boat. It was almost brand new. A ship called Wahine, purpose-built for the Lyttelton to Wellington crossing. She was roll-on roll-off, capable of carrying nearly a thousand passengers. The Otago cricket team quickly settled into the bar for a night of cards and beer. I remember talking to one of the crew who said we may be in for a rough voyage, and didn't take too much notice, I guess. But no one, not even the weather forecaster, could have predicted what was coming ` a perfect storm, a cyclone colliding with an Antarctic gale. By morning the winds were hammering wellington, and Wahine was sailing straight into it. I was actually in the shower, and I got thrown against the side of the shower cubicle. Wahine had hit Barrett's Reef at the entrance to Wellington Harbour. I was standing up trying to get my trousers on, and I kept being thrown into the bottom bunk. And then Ray Hutch came running into the cabin, and he was white as a sheet. 'Put your life jackets on!' 'Well, that's all right, Ray, but where are they?!' Somehow they found their lifejackets and headed upstairs. You couldn't see anywhere, know which way was which and where was front and back and which way we were going, and waves were crashing down on you. How big were the waves? I'd say they'd be 40ft or 50ft, and the rain and mist was such that at times you couldn't even see off the side of the boat. It was quite amazing. You actually couldn't see any water, cos it seemed to be all foam; it was so rough. Within hours, Wahine's lower decks were flooded. Suddenly the boat started to list, and people started to fall off the lounge seats and tables started to become overturned. For the elderly it was a nightmare. They were 60, 70, probably 80 some of them. It was terrifying when it listed and they just flew, they just flew down to the windows. People broke their legs, that sort of thing, and there's just nothing you can do about it. I think there was a few people yelling out when they hit the rail. Of course there would be one or two screams. Then the call to abandon ship. Murray Parker found himself sliding down the deck. i guess you were falling at a fair speed. i guess you were falling at a fair speed. Absolutely, yes. So you went straight off the side? Yeah, under the rail and into the water. I landed right beside an upside down raft. Some Otago team members climbed up on the high side and thought about staying put. I had a really armchair ride, took my shoes off, jumped on to a life raft that was floating upside down behind a life boat and used it as a trampoline, ran across that into the lifeboat, so piece of cake. You didn't have to swim? You didn't have to swim? No, I couldn't. Others weren't so lucky. There were hundreds bobbing in the water and floating towards Eastbourne, cos that's the way the elements were going. cos that's the way the elements were going. Some of those people died. Absolutely. That's where all the deaths basically, I think, happened, at Eastbourne. It's very rocky shores over there, and they were smashed on the rocks. Meanwhile Russell was still aboard the crippled ship. I saw all these people already in the water with their lifejackets, and that's when I realised it was for real. I wasn't sure if they were alive or dead. Russell jumped into a crowded lifeboat, but it soon overturned. It became quite scary because we were continually washed off this lifeboat by these waves breaking over us. I sort of felt myself getting a bit weaker each time we swam back. You'd look up and you'd see the top of the wave, a bit like two or three storeys high almost. Did you think, 'This could be it.'? I was actually praying that these waves would cease, and luckily they did. The wind dropped. Many were rescued from the water. Others rowed to shore. ARCHIVE: This was one of the luckier ones. It was the first lifeboat to reach the shore on Seatoun Beach. We were actually the first lifeboat in and that again was a really scary situation because the waves were crashing in there, so we tossed out a 2-inch rope out, and hundreds of people grabbed it and ran up the beach and kept it taut so they dragged us as straight as we could without getting broadside on. Russell Stewart was pulled from the water by a fisherman. And then had further luck because by chance I ran into a friend from Otago University. Her name was Pauline Gordon. ARCHIVE: Minister of Transport Mr Gordon was at Wellington Station. Yep, that's Pauline's dad right there, the Minister of Transport. He lent me a pair of his trousers which were far too big for me, and he looked at me and said we going to the DIC department store and we'll get you a complete set of clothing, and we'll charge it up to the Union Steamship Company. 53 people died that day, but the Otago players were among the lucky ones. Have your fellow teammates been affected by this through their lives? I'm sure they have. I'm sure they have. If anything, my Wahine experience actually gave me a bit more self-confidence because I realised that if I could survive that ordeal, I should be able to face any challenges in life that were ahead of me. Russell Stewart went on to play for Otago, as did Ray Hutchison. Murray parker played Test cricket for NZ. But it would take 45 years before the team that never played were together again for a weekend at the cricket in Dunedin. You've never played, but you're still a team even now? Absolutely. This weekend has been absolutely fantastic, absolutely fantastic. And it almost feels as though we have played. One more, just us two. CHATTER Nice. Looking this way. Lovely. Well, that's nearly our show, but before we go tonight, a look at what's coming up next week. Taking away the babies to give them a chance. I felt like my heart had been ripped out and stomped on. I don't wish it on anybody. Young mums given just one opportunity. SOBBING It's too late. It's too late for her daughter. < They either perform or they lose the baby? < They either perform or they lose the baby? Yes, that's right. Kati ra mo tenei po ` that's our show for tonight. Do check us out on Facebook, Sunday TVNZ.