You realize there is a huge difference between actual slavery and labor as punishment for committing a crime right?

Chinese imperialism in action. Japan has records of administering the islands since the late 1800s. The PRC's own government maps referred to the islands by their Japanese name and they made no claim to them for decades. Then oil was discovered in the area and suddenly the PRC has "historical documents" proving their claim.

The Institute for Justice has teamed up to help on his appeal: https://ij.org/case/bailey-v-iles/ . The IIJ does excellent work, so I fully expect the QI ruling to be overturned on appeal.