Archive for May, 2012

Harry Wu Speaks at Institute of World Politics Commencement

Posted: May 22, 2012 in Laogai News
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IWP Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Charles Roger Smith, Chairman of the Board of Trustees Owen T. Smith, and Founder and President John Lenczowski present Harry Wu with an Honorary Doctorate of Laws. (Photo by Thomas Zeeb)

On Saturday, May 19th, the Institute of World Politics presented Laogai Research Foundation executive director Harry Wu with an Honorary Doctorate of Laws. Mr. Wu also had the honor of delivering the keynote address to the Institute’s 2012 graduating class.

The Institute of World Politics is a graduate school of national security and international affairs located in Washington, DC. Founded in 1990 by Dr. John Lenczowski, the Institute is unique in its emphasis on cultivating civic virtue and strong moral character in tomorrow’s statesmen and strategists. In keeping with this message, The Honorable Faith Ryan Whittlesey, former U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland who was also awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws, stressed that America needs to listen more, talk with global leaders, and engage in public diplomacy in order to rebuild goodwill overseas.

Harry Wu with The Honorable Faith Ryan Whittlesey and Mr. Owen T. Smith, Esq.

Harry Wu addresses the graduates.

In his keynote address, Harry Wu congratulated the graduates on all of their remarkable accomplishments, but emphasized that their greatest achievements are still to come. Wu told his own story of imprisonment and persecution in Communist China, but also of his lifelong battle for freedom and justice.

He recounted, “In 1990, the U.S. Congress invited me to testify on Laogai prison system. Senator Jesse Helms asked me, “How many camps are there? How many prisoners?” I myself had been imprisoned in 12 different camps over the course of my 19 years, but I realized I had no way to answer these questions. How many people went through what I went through? How many Chinese are still in the Laogai, while I sit here a free man? Who will speak out for them? That was when I realized my life’s purpose: to expose the Laogai and all the horrible crimes of China’s Communist Party.”

For his crimes of thought and expression, Wu said, “The Communist Party wanted me to spend a total of 34 years of my life as a prison slave! And for what?! I was not a murderer or a thief; all I did was speak my mind and try to learn the truth about human rights abuse in China.”

By telling his story, Mr. Wu hoped to draw attention to the need for future American policymakers and officials to take a stand against oppressive regimes and defend human rights. He told the graduates, “Freedom should not be considered a privilege. It is a right! But that does not mean that you should not appreciate it. When you work in politics or international affairs, of course it is important to recognize that all countries have different cultures and values. But I am sure about one thing. Inside, we are fundamentally the same. We all want and deserve our basic rights as human beings. The United States has worked hard to protect human liberty since before it was founded. When you work to serve your country and your fellow citizens, you are showing that you are thankful for these rights. But you must also exercise these rights; use them to speak up for those who do not yet enjoy basic freedoms, for those who are oppressed.”

To see the read the full transcript of Harry Wu’s keynote address, click here: Harry Wu Keynote_ IWP Commencement 2012. The commencement announcement for the Institute of World Politics is here.

IWP’s class of 2012

Harry Wu Discusses Laogai on Italian TV Program, “Quello che (non) ho”

Posted: May 18, 2012 in Laogai News
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LRF Supports Formation of National ‘Buy American’ Coalition

Posted: May 15, 2012 in Laogai News
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TAP America, the Made In the USA Foundation and the American Job Alliance today announced the ‘Buy American Coalition’ to stimulate the U.S. economy, protect the American values of tolerance and patriotism, and weaken authoritarian regimes that violate human rights, like the People’s Republic of China.

The formation of the ‘Buy American Coalition’ comes on the heels of the latest troubling news out of China. Korean customs officials have seized thousands of Chinese-made pills made from the flesh of fetuses, the product of forced abortions under the Communist Party’s one-child policy. This tragedy is an extreme example of the millions of dangerously unhealthy and unethically produced goods that flow out of China into the U.S. and every other country.

TAP America Founder Mark Bloome said, “The ‘Buy American Coalition’ is of great importance to our country now more than ever. We are seeing our jobs being hollowed out in America by unfair competition from China. Working with both the American Jobs Alliance and Made In the USA Foundation, we believe that this issue is large enough to require examination by multiple organizations. We at TAPamerica.org are leading the charge.”

The Buy American Coalition calls on citizens to buy American and boycott China. This grassroots action sends a clear message that Americans believe that their people and nation prosper by adhering to traditional values of liberty and human dignity, not by abandoning them to appease foreign autocracies such as the Chinese Community Party.

China’s authoritarian regime is critically dependent on American cash and investment to fund its machinery of repression. “When consumers buy American-made products they put Americans to work and starve the Chinese Communist Party of resources. This is a double victory — for American workers and American values,” said Greg Autry, Senior Economist with the American Jobs Alliance. “It is not possible or even necessary to completely shun Chinese-made products to have a positive impact. Even the threat of a substantial boycott would change the behavior of corporations that benefit from China’s exploited labor and mercantilist trade behavior,” Autry notes. “A 20% drop in imports from China would easily destabilize Beijing. Buying American will make U.S. firms appreciate that.”

The Laogai Research Foundation fully supports the coalition’s efforts, especially as we invite guests at our Laogai Museum to consider the origins of the products they buy every day. For a large proportion of products sold in the U.S., buying Made in China means buying Made in Laogai. Our founder and director Harry Wu commented on the formation of the Buy American Coalition:

“For decades the U.S. government has said that doing business with China would bring democracy and human rights to the Chinese people, but it is now clearer than ever that buying up their cheap prison-made goods has only strengthened the Chinese Communist Party. This imbalanced relationship is hurting the American people too, as they see their health threatened by unsafe Chinese products, their jobs lost, and their economy undermined. If governments do not insist that the repressive Chinese regime abide by fair trade practices, then it is up to American corporations and consumers to hold China accountable for its prison slave labor, lack of compassion for other workers, and countless human rights violations.”

The ‘Buy American Coalition” is comprised of:

Click here to read more!

In Attempt to Cover Up Laogai Camps, China Expels Al-Jazeera Reporter

Posted: May 8, 2012 in Laogai News
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Click here to watch the “Prison Slaves” exposé!

At the end of 2011, the Chinese government refused to renew the journalist permit of English-language reporter Melissa Chan for Al Jazeera’s Beijing bureau, only allowing her to stay in China on a temporary visa. It has expired as of today but Beijing still refuses to extend her permit. Helpless, Ms. Chan was forced to return to the United States and Al-Jazeera had no choice but to close down its Beijing bureau.

According to reports, Beijing was unhappy with Al-Jazeera’s reporting on topics forbidden coverage in China, especially its November 2011 documentary, Slavery, A 21st Century Evil: Prison Slaves. A large portion of the documentary was filmed inside China, as a detailed exposé of how China’s prisons force their prisoners to perform intense and unhealthy labor while exporting their products to the international market. Al-Jazeera extensively interviewed Laogai Research Foundation founder and director Harry Wu during production. The film has aroused strong reactions in the international community, once again making the Laogai - the darkest corner of human rights abuse in China - the focus of attention. In its embarrassment, the Chinese Communist government has unfortunately decided to retaliate against Al-Jazeera’s Beijing bureau, although Ms. Chan was not involved in the filming or production of the Prison Slaves documentary.

The Laogai is the Communist Party’s key to maintaining a single-party dictatorship; its suppression of the Chinese people and its greedy exploitation of prisoners combine to create a uniquely utilitarian political tool. The former provides a steady stream of unpaid labor, herded and locked in a thousand camps across the country, while the latter reaps in huge profits for the regime. Despite the nearly two-decade long ban on export of Laogai products, Chinese prison enterprises of all levels have continued to dump their forced-labor goods into international markets. The ban has only made them more subtle in their business dealings.

Forced labor is a serious violation of human rights. The Chinese government must stop perpetrating it, by abolishing its over half-century-old policy of “reform through labor”. The system is no secret within China; every Chinese person is a few degrees removed from a current or former Laogai prisoner. However, Beijing denies to the world that it sponsors these camps and their illegal business deals, even after being caught red-handed in documentaries such as Al-Jazeera. Their crimes are compounded by cover-up, leading China farther and farther down the path of human rights abuse in the eyes of the world.

Giving the cold shoulder to and ultimately expelling Al-Jazeera’s Beijing correspondent shows that protecting the global secrecy about the Laogai is still a core interest for the Chinese regime. The Chinese Communist Partyt is not weakening or softening the clamp-down that started in 1989, but rather intensified it in 2008, and redoubled efforts again after the Arab spring in 2011. The incident also shows that China’s press freedom continues to decline, not only in its control of domestic press, but also in its blatant interference in the mission of the foreign press.

The Laogai Research Foundation remembers the Chinese Communists’ expulsion of foreign journalists in 1998 during the reign of Jiang Zemin and Zhu Rongji. The Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao regime’s inability to perform anything but old tricks 14 years later, demonstrates the incorrigible anti-human rights nature of the People’s Republic of China.

The Laogai Research Foundation strongly protests the Chinese communist government’s attempts to cover up the evil of the labor camps, and their expulsion of the Al-Jazeera correspondent. We call upon the relevant agency to immediately grant Melissa Chan a visa extension, allow Al-Jazeera to continue its presence in Beijing, and earnestly respect the international media’s right to investigate and report the truth.

Laogai Research Foundation
May 8, 2012

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