On Saturday, February 28th, the Laogai Research Foundation participated in a political fair hosted by Junior State of America (JSA) at the Double Tree in Crystal City, Virginia. JSA is an organization of high school students from across the U.S. who are actively engaged in politics, government, foreign affairs, law, and education. On this, the final weekend of the JSA's Winter Congress in Washington, DC, hundreds of students from the Mid-Atlantic states and Texas were in attendance. LRF took this opportunity to reach out to these bright young students, who will undoubtedly be among the leaders of tomorrow,  and share with them the story of the Laogai.

Before the fair, most had never heard of Laogai, China's ongoing system of forced labor prisons. We also challenged the students to imagine a world in which they could not access Facebook, Youtube, Wikipedia, or Twitter, and where posting one's opinions on a blog can lead to years of imprisonment, thus emphasizing the impact that internet censorship has on Chinese society. By raising awareness of the Chinese government's repressive tactics and by sharing the story of former political prisoner and LRF founder Harry Wu, we hope that the students left not only left with more information, but also with a peaked interest in Chinese human rights issues.

Students were encouraged to enter a raffle to win free copies of selected LRF publications including Harry Wu's memoirs, Bitter Winds and Troublemaker, as well as LAOGAI: The Machinery of Repression in China. Through activities such as this, LRF hopes to spur interest in foreign affairs and global human rights among America's youth.