Page 186 - Communist Chinas Policy of Oppression in East Turkestan

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THE LAOGAI "RE-EDUCATION CENTERS"

The laogai in China are the equivalent of Hitler's concentration
camps and Stalin's gulags. The laogai system is intended to totally dom-
inate people's thoughts, and turn them into slaves. It is one of the
Chinese state's most important control mechanisms. So far some 20 mil-

39
lion people have lost their lives in these camps. The aim behind these
camps is "re-education" by means of forced labor. One of the most fre-
quently employed slogans is "Forced labor is a means, and a revolu-
tion in thought the end." To put it more clearly, the intention behind
the laogai is to use all possible means to oblige those who are seen as a
potential threat to conform to the Communist Party's wishes. That in
turn means humiliation, oppression, enslavement and torture.
These camps are often concealed by using other names for them,
and may look like factories, mines or farms to fit the name. An article in

The Washington Post described one of these camps, "Hunan Special
Electric Machine Factory," or "Hunan Province No. 1 Prison," in which
2-3,000 prisoners are forced to work for an average of 16 hours a day.
The factory used to make industrial generators, but now produces vari-
ous goods such as wigs, medicine boxes, gloves, and Christmas lights. 40
Laogai camps are actually intended to punish prisoners, and in-
mates are exploited by being forced to work under very harsh condi-

tions. The inmates of laogai camps have no rights. They are made to
work in state factories, mines, and farms, and to abide by the rules. An
individual is kept in these camps until the authorities decide he has
been completely reformed (in other words, torture and cruelty are applied
until he is molded and obedient to the Communist Party's wishes.) That can
sometimes take a whole lifetime, as even if a prisoner has served his en-
tire sentence, he is still kept in the camp to carry out other tasks until the
administration decides he has reformed. It is known that, as of 1997,

Communist China’s Policy
of Oppression in East Turkestan