Harry Wu to Launch New Book, "Qincheng Prison", at Taipei International Book Exhibition

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Releases Date: 

Mon, 01/30/2012

For Immediate Release:

Washington, DC January 30, 2012 - The Laogai Research Foundation (LRF) will participate in the Taipei International Book Exhibition at the Taipei World Trade Center from February 1st to 6th. LRF director and human rights activist Harry Wu will personally announce the launch of his latest work, “Qincheng Prison”, and the Laogai Research Foundation’s publication of “If It Is For Freedom – Essays by Liu Xianbin” in Chinese. English editions of the two books are soon to follow. Other books available for purchase at LRF’s exhibition booth will include two Chinese works by Nobel Peace Prize Winner Liu Xiaobo, 30 volumes of the foundation’s Black Series authored by prison camp survivors, and various works on human rights abuse in China. 
About Qincheng Prison:
Qincheng Prison is the only prison in China that, for fifty years, has served the sole purpose of incarcerating political prisoners. Over the years, inmates have included Kuomintang prisoners of war, counterrevolutionaries from within the Communist Party, the wives of Mao Zedong and former State Chairman Liu Shaoqi, 1989 democracy activists and student leaders, and in recent years, high officials who were charged with corruption. From 1960 to 1980, not a single prisoner in Qincheng was sentenced there through legal proceedings. Chinese history expert and Academia Sinica scholar Professor Yu Yingshi wrote in his preface for the book, “Qincheng Prison is a unique working institution of the Chinese totalitarian state which may best be viewed as a vital political instrument in legal disguise. As such, it holds an important key to our understanding of the so-called 'socialism with Chinese characteristics.'”
About If It Is For Freedom:
If It Is For Freedom is a collection of works by currently imprisoned democracy activist Liu Xianbin. In 2010, he was arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of “inciting subversion of state power”. At the age of 42, Liu Xianbin has already endured 13 years in prison, having served two sentences as punishment for seeking a free and democratic China. The book is a collection of Liu’s memories and accounts of the democracy movement, as well as a selection of his academic articles.