Everything about Laogai totally explained
Laogai, the abbreviation for
Laodong
Gaizao(勞動改造), which means "reform through labor," is a slogan of the
Chinese criminal justice system and has been used to refer to the use of
prison labor in the
People's Republic of China. It is often confused with, but completely different from,
reeducation through labor, which is a system of administrative detentions.
During the
1960s, Chinese
prisons contained large numbers of people who were determined to be too critical of the government or "counter-revolutionary". Prisons were organized like factories. However, many people arrested for political or religious reasons were released in the late
1970s at the start of the
Deng Xiaoping reforms.
There are accusations that Chinese prisons produce products that are often sold in foreign countries, with the profits going to the PRC government. Products include everything from
green tea to industrial engines to
coal dug from
mines. However, these products make up an insignificant amount of
mainland China's export output, and it has been argued that the use of prison labor for manufacturing isn't itself a violation of
human rights and that most prisoners in Chinese prisons are there for what are generally regarded as
crimes in the
West. Western outrage at the perceived violation of human rights centers on the claims of detainees being held for political or religious violations, such as leadership of unregistered
Chinese House Churches.
The downfall of
socialism has reduced
revenue to local governments, increasing pressure for local governments to attempt to supplement their
income using prison labor. At the same time, prisoners don't make a good
workforce, and the products produced by prison labor in China are of extremely low quality and have become unsalable on the open market in competition with products made by ordinary paid labor. Furthermore, it has been argued that prison labor has considerably improved conditions for the average prisoners because
wardens have found that prisoners who are well-treated make a much more productive workforce.
An insider's view from the
1950s to the
1990s is detailed in the books of
Harry Wu, including
Troublemaker and
Laogai. He spent almost all of his adult life as a prisoner in these camps for criticizing the government while he was a young student in college. He almost died several times, but eventually escaped to the
United States. Critics have argued that he far overstates the present role of forced labor in Chinese prisons and ignores the tremendous changes that have occurred in China since then. Supporters point out that Wu revisited China in the
1990s, investigated labor camps, determined that little had changed, was arrested again, but was released under pressure from
United States politicians.
In 2003, the word "laogai" entered the Oxford English Dictionary.
Further Information
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