Interview with Harry Wu

Interview with Harry Wu
(From the TG2 night-time edition, January 25, 2008)

On January 25, 2008 the night-time edition of TG2 (the nightly news of Italian television channel 2) aired an interview-testimonial with Harry Wu, dissident writer and author of the book “Bitter Winds. A memoir of my years in China’s gulag.” What follows are some of his statements:

“In the work camps the torture never stopped, you would be starving to death and they would force you to “confess,” to betray your friends (…). The Communist regime aimed at obtaining two things from the work camps: a “reformed” man – turned into a Communist – and products for export. Today many products that arrive in Italy (clothes, shoes and so on) are made by prisoners of the camps. There are over one thousand camps in China in which millions of people are forced to work.

(…) The communist revolution persecutes above all two classes, the middle class and the land owners. My father was a banker (…) I was singled out in 1949 as a Catholic (…) There were no courts or trials, they simply told me that I would be sentenced to life in the camps. I was lucky enough to survive. Others weren’t.

“(…) Communists are against all religions. In the 1950’s all churches, including temples, were destroyed. (…) In the 1980’s people were still looking for a faith to believe in, so two solutions were found: suppression, and the so-called “patriotic church.” The government spent a lot of money to rebuild the churches and hire employees who became priests and nuns; this is the so-called patriotic church which currently exists in China. But if you are truly religious, they put you in jail or condemn you to the hard labor camps. (…) There is no freedom of religion in China today.

Question: China is getting ready to host a very important event this summer, the Olympic Games. The government believes this to be an opportunity to project a different image of itself. Will the Chinese government be able to maintain the silence about all the abuses it perpetrates on its citizens?

The Chinese government wanted the Olympics because it could bring them honor, recognition and also notable economic gain. People in the West think that this event is an opportunity for China to promote democracy and human rights, but in my opinion China has no right to organize the Olympic Games.

(…) One of China’s basic policies is population control. A woman can’t get pregnant without the approval of the government, and government policy does not allow more than one child. A second pregnancy is considered illicit and illegal. You can lose your job and they can destroy your home. This has happened many times in the last 27 years, didn’t the United Nations know about this? Of course they did. But no one came out and condemned it.

The United Nations (…) should ask the Chinese government to provide them with information about the millions of people who are executed every year. All of this has been kept secret since the 1970’s, no information has been provided. How many people have been executed? It is estimated that 80%, maybe 90% of all executions occurred in China. Thousands take place every year. Organs from the dead bodies are used for transplants… circa 95% of the organs come from the prisoners in the work camps. It’s a horrible thing. The international community and the United Nations never say anything about it.

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