Recently, China has frequently found itself at the forefront of
the international stage, most notably as the host of the 2008
Summer Olympic Games. China’s leaders had long awaited
this opportunity to showcase the new face of China – one that
is modern, prosperous, and proud. But while Beijing succeeded
in delivering stunning performances, both in the athletic events
and in the Olympic ceremonies, the image of a “harmonious”
nation that it wished to project was undermined by other
significant events which caught the attention of the
international community.
In March 2008 the world watched as China responded to
widespread demonstrations in its Tibetan areas with a forceful,
indiscriminate crackdown on the Tibetan community, including
monks and nuns. Another incident was China’s reaction to the
massive earthquake that devastated parts of Sichuan on May
12th
. Reporting conditions, which were initially quite free after
the disaster, quickly became restrictive after stories began to
emerge of grieving parents blaming substandard construction
of school buildings for the deaths of their children. China has
also frustrated the international community in recent years with
its continuing support of other dictatorial regimes in Sudan,
Myanmar, and Zimbabwe. Not only has China provided these
regimes with diplomatic protection, but it has also supplied
them with arms. Also, although China still holds its champion
status in the field of cheap exports, the health and safety
standards of its products came into question last year when
consumers in the US and throughout the world discovered they
had been buying poisonous food and toxic toys from China.
Thus, despite China’s intense propaganda offensive, the outside
world has still managed to get several glimpses of the
considerable challenges facing its authoritarian leadership.
Indeed, to an objective observer, the news coming from China
reveals that in many measures of a great nation –
environmental protection and sustainable development,
equality of economic opportunity and access to social welfare,
public health, fair labor conditions, and so on – China has
fallen short of international standards. And with regard to
human rights in particular, China has without a doubt failed to
meet its Olympic expectations.
The Laogai, China’s brutal system of labor camps, remains one
of the most glaring blemishes on China’s human rights record.
Although the term Laogai (reform through labor) was replaced
in official use with jianyu (prison) in 1994, so as to suggest to
Western countries that the Chinese penal system was not so
different than theirs, the true nature of the Laogai has not
changed. The Laogai slogan “Reform first, production second,”
continues to appear on prison gates and the millions of Laogai
prisoners continue to endure “reform” exercises that entail
forced labor, political indoctrination, and often, physical and
mental abuse. Moreover, the Laojiao (reeducation through
labor) component of the Laogai system, which reappeared in
the early 1980’s and allows for the arrest and detention of petty
criminals for up to three years without formal charge or trial, is
not even considered by the Chinese government to qualify as a
prison. Rather, it is regarded as a form of administrative Laogai Handbook/劳改手册
2
detention and is often employed against political and religious
dissidents.
In addition to serving as an instrument of repression, the
Laogai also functions as a commercial enterprise, exploiting its
large supply of free labor to generate revenue for prison
officials and for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
According to the Criminal Reform Handbook issued by the
Ministry of Justice in 1988, the Laogai “organizes criminals in
labor and production, thus creating wealth for society.”
Prisoners are engaged in a wide array of economic endeavors,
including manufacturing, farming, mining, construction, etc.
They are forced to work up to 14 hours a day, often under
hazardous conditions with inadequate safety equipment, and
with insufficient food, sleep, and health care. Prisoners who fail
to meet quotas may face physical punishment. The products
are sold in Chinese and in international markets, with the most
successful of the Laogai operations, such as those in Liaoning
and Shandong provinces, earning hundreds of millions of yuan
in profit and paying millions of yuan in taxes.
Condemnation over China’s export of prison labor products led
the Chinese government to articulate on several occasions that
to do so was illegal under Chinese law. In 1991 the State
Council affirmed this and further stipulated that prisons were
not permitted to cooperate or establish joint ventures with
foreign investors. Bilateral agreements signed with the US in
1992 and 1994 also reiterated China’s ban on such exports.
However, the ability of national leaders to enforce this policy
on provincial and lower level Laogai facilities is very limited,
and the government still offers incentives to enterprises relying
on prison labor to export products. In a recent research project
conducted by the Laogai Research Foundation, 256 Laogai
camps were found to have 314 separate commercial listings on
one of two online Dun & Bradstreet business databases. These
camps produce 72 different types of products, ranging from
clothing to electronics, ceramics to sugar. Thus, trade of
Chinese prison labor products, albeit largely driven
underground, seems to be as prevalent as ever.
In 1992, the Laogai Research Foundation (LRF) was
established to gather information and to educate the public
about the Laogai. Since its inception, LRF has expanded its
focus to document and report on other systemic human rights
violations in China including public executions, organ
harvesting, the coercive enforcement of China's population
control policy, and persecution of religious believers. After
over a decade of efforts, the word Laogai was added to the
Oxford English Dictionary in 2003, the Duden German
Dictionary in 2004, and the Italian dictionary Universale in
2006. The inclusion of Laogai in these lexicons was a great
accomplishment for LRF and others fighting to raise awareness
about the Laogai. These definitions clarify that unlike the
Gulag, which is now a historical institution, the Laogai remains
a fully operational system in China today.
The Laogai Handbook, now in its 10th edition, is the world’s
only independent and publicly available catalog of China’s
Laogai, the most extensive and covert network of forced labor
camps in the world. This edition, which incorporates Preface/前言
3
information uncovered through June 2008, identifies 1,422
camps by name and location (669 prisons and 319 re-education
through labor camps, not including those that have been
abolished or that we cannot verify, numbering 340 and 74,
respectively, and marked with an *). Yet this number is only an
estimate and most likely many more exist. The Chinese
government considers national statistics about the Laogai to be
state secrets--but the Laogai is a difficult secret to keep.
Most of the information in this book was found on the Internet.
Many prisons have their own websites describing size,
population, and enterprise products; however; some of these
could only be accessed for two or three days before they
vanished. LRF attributes this to the ongoing CCP campaign to
keep Laogai information from the public. On the other hand,
any statistics regarding Laogai production are emphasized and
available to anyone. Other sources include LRF’s own
document archives and LRF employee secret investigations of
Laogai camps, sources from the Library of Congress for
historical statistics, and firsthand accounts from former
prisoners.
1
Some descriptions of working conditions within the
camps were found on www.minghui.org, a Falun Gong created
website and are noted. Although we cannot verify the
statements on this site, based on previous research and other
sources with similar accounts, LRF believes them to be
accurate. Notably, information regarding prisons and labor
1
Province Chronicles: Anhui renmin chubanshe 1989-1999 (Anhui
province), Shandong renmin chubanshe, 1998 (Shandong province),
Shanghai shehui kexueyuan chubanshe, 2003 (Shanghai).
camps in some provinces has been especially difficult to verify.
Xinjiang and Qinghai provinces in particular have relatively
high numbers of unconfirmed entries – 43 of 86 entries in
Xinjiang and 28 of 47 entries in Qinghai.
The Laogai Research Foundation believes that as long as the
Chinese Communist Party’s dictatorship exists, the Laogai will
continue to serve as its essential mechanism for suppression
and persecution. As a growing world power, it is incumbent
upon China to govern responsibly. The most vital responsibility
for a government is to respect the human rights of its people.
The Laogai system, like the Soviet Gulag, is a violation of
basic human rights and is incompatible with freedom and
democracy.
We invite you to read the Laogai Handbook carefully, to
contemplate the number of camps, the variety of goods made,
and to think of the men and women who are suffering in the
Laogai today. Only the attention of the world can bring about
an end to that suffering, and this begins with you.
This edition of the Laogai Handbook was created by LRF
Executive Director Harry Wu, Director Tienchi Martin-Liao,
and LRF staff Shirley, Jean, Kirk, Mei Fu, Anthony and Mel.
LRF would like to extend its gratitude to the National
Endowment for Democracy, which makes projects like this
possible. We are also deeply indebted to certain persons in
China who cannot be named but provided us with invaluable
information used in this book.