China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday denied media reports suggesting that foreign inmates at a Shanghai prison were being subjected to forced labor. The remarks came a day after the Sunday Times, a British weekly, reported that a 6-year-old girl in London had opened a pack of Christmas cards and found one containing a plea for help.

“We are foreign prisoners in Shanghai Qinqpu prison China. Forced to work against our will. Please help us and notify human rights organization,” the card said, urging the reader to contact Peter Humphrey, a former British journalist who was held at the same prison from 2014 to 2015. The father of the girl who found the card contacted Humphrey, who wrote the story for the Times.

The Chinese foreign ministry has vehemently denied the article, calling it a “drama choreographed by Mr. Peter Humphrey” in a post Monday on its official Twitter account. Geng Shuang, a ministry spokesperson, also said during a news briefing Monday that “according to the relevant organs, Qingpu prison does not have this issue of foreign prisoners being forced to work,” according to Reuters.

British supermarket chain Tesco, where the card was purchased, said it had “immediately suspended the factory where these cards are produced” and launched an investigation, the Times reported. (Image: Tuchong)