China's Laogai - "Reeducation through Labor” Imprisonment and Human Rights Violations

The Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Pennsylvania presents a talk with Harry Wu from the Laogai Research Foundation.

In 1960, Wu was condemned as a counterrevolutionary by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Due to his class background and political views, he spent 19 years in the Laogai- China's forced labor prison camps. After his release, Wu immigrated to the US and founded the Laogai Research Foundation in 1992. In 1995, Wu was rearrested while doing undercover research in China, but due to international pressure, he was exiled rather than having to serve another 15 year prison term. Wu has written many books and has been nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize. In 2008, the LRF established the Laogai Museum in Washington, DC to spread awareness about China's rights abuses and memorialize the millions of victims of China's communist regime.

In addition to sharing his own story of persecution, Mr. Wu will introduce students to the Laogai, a countrywide forced labor prison system modeled on the Soviet gulag, which was established by the Chinese Communist Party in 1949. "Laogai" is an abbreviation of laodong gaizao (劳动改造), which means "reform through labor". Thus, the Laogai serves two purposes: to produce products for the profit of the state, and to reform the political and ideological thought of the prisoners so that they fall in line with CCP ideology. Since 1949, an estimated 40-50 million have been jailed within, many of whom were prisoners of conscience. Although much has changed in China since the era of Mao Zedong, the Laogai system remains in place today and continues to imprison common criminals as well as political prisoners.

Mr. Wu will discuss this and other abuses of China's communist government, including current issues such as the export of Laogai forced labor products, internet censorship, and persecution of political dissidents.

* CEAS China and International Human Rights Colloquium, Penn Law School