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The Laogai Handbook
The Laogai serve two very important functions. They are the secret motor behind the Chinese economy as well as its most effective weapon of political repression. Chairman Mao had astutely realized, "The large number of people who are serving their sentences is an enormous source of labor." Since their creation 50 years ago, millions of people - Chinese, Tibetans, Uyghurs, Mongolians, etc. - have been victims of this so-called "re-education through labor" system.
In today’s China, there are over 1,000 work camps. The prisoners are forced to work 10-14 hours per day without pay. They live in primitive conditions, at constant risk of being subjected to torture and are denied proper medical care. They are often victims of organ harvesting. Laws are passed both within China and in other countries which ban the export of goods produced in the Laogai. But no one realistically believes that these bans are respected.
The Laogai Handbook, compiled by the Laogai Research Foundation and now in its 10th edition, is the most authoritative record on the Laogai system - with the exception of the official (secret) records of the Chinese government. The Laogai Research Foundation defines it as the only independent and publicly available catalog of China’s Laogai, the most extensive and covert network of forced labor camps in the world.
The Laogai Handbook quotes a work titled "Laogai Economics" which succinctly explains the utility of the Laogai in maintaining the dictatorship:
"Laogai economics has the dual characteristics of the management of economic administration and the study of reform through labor. In viewing the socialist ownership of means of production under the control of the whole people it is a component of the socialist national economy… Among Laogai products, some are indispensable goods in the national plan and the people’s lives, some are used in national defense industries; some special products which are made with Laogai characteristics are welcomed by society; some have already been named as national or provincial superior products; (and) some have reached worldclass, advanced levels. Some of the products are even exported to various parts of the world, not only earning large amounts of foreign currency, but also winning praise for the state."
Link to the 10th edition of the Laogai Handbook:
http://www.laogai.org/news2/book/handbook2008-all.pdf
Link to the site of the Laogai Research Foundation:
http://www.laogai.org/news/index.php
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