From: ding@HPSMTC1.CUP.HP.COM (Ignatius Y. Ding)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.china
Subject: Re: The book by Harry Wu: Comments
Date: 15 Sep 92 19:54:42 GMT
Reply-To: "Ignatius Y. Ding" <ding@HPSMTC1.CUP.HP.COM>
Organization: Indiana University
Comments: To: china-nt@uga.cc.uga.edu

>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>1. "Laogai: The Chinese Gulag" by Hongda Harry Wu ...................... 52
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>From: Steve Haber (shaber@ccm.UManitoba.CA)
>Publisher: Westview Press; 247 pp. $34.95
>
>>....Deleted....
>>The death penalty
>>is applied for crimes as insignificant as the export of cultural relics
>
>Insignificant?! Could somebody here has such a insignificant piece, I would
>loke to offer very significant amount of money for exchange. Export? Dose
>Harry Wu regards it as part of human rights violation that he dares not
>participate such a good international trade? How about call it "smuggle"
>instead of "export"? When even death penalty cannot stop the wave of
>smuggling cultural relics, what do MR.Wu expect from lift that penalty?
>Each piece of culture relics "exported" from China and then Mr.Wu could
>write another book about how Chinese government destory Chinese culture?
>Mr. Wu better go read some basic books about criminology before publishing
>a book about Chinese prisoners.:-)
>

I am certain that netters know very well that the Chinese government and many
of the "high officials (Gao Gan)" are the biggest wholesalers of the invaluable
Chinese treasures.  However, that is not the point to discuss here.

I am only appalled by William Deng's view of human life.  It seems that he is
in total agreement with the CCP in abusing Chinese citizens with capital
punishment in many ways to sustain its reign over the nation.

>
>>Chinese military
>>power also holds captive millions of people in Tibet, Xinjiang and Inner
>>Mongolia.
>
>There is an obvious contradiction between here and the claim that prisoners
>are forced to produce export goods. But everyone knows that the transportation
>cost is terribly high in that three remote provinces. The *millions* of
>prisoners should be stationed in GuangDong to be able make some profits
>out of export goods by forced labor. Now Harry Wu should read some basic
>economics books before talking about "unfair trade". :-)
>

GuangDong does have its share of the Laogai labor force, mind you.  The slave
camps located in the remote areas are there for various reasons.  Some are more
political than anything else.  Ask Ms. Ge Yang, the accomplished journalist, a
lifetime communist, and also a political prisoner in Inner Mongolia for more
than ten years for criticizing the party leadership; she can tell you plenty of
those reasons.	On other hand, the Hong Kong investment in those "factories" in
Qinghai, for example, turns out to be among the most profitable "international
joint ventures" to produce leather goods, garments, and autoparts for exports.
Some of the products are shipped through Hong Knog to Korea for finishing
processing or packaging before exported to the western countries for hard
currency.  The data and analysis are due to be published and also presented to
the U.N. Commission on Human Rights for review.  There are also credible
evidences to be presented in a congressional hearing later this month.	Just
stay tuned!

>
>>In fact, one of Mr. Wu's most unexpected revelations is the part played by
>>prison labor in China's surge into the international market economy.
>
>How big is the part? 1% or less? Former Soviet Union enjoyed a bigger
>prison labor, but we never see any achievement by Soviet prisoners in
>the international market economy. :-)
>

Again, Laogai camp system dwarf the Soviet Gulag by a amazingly large margin.
The Chinese Laogai officials perfected the trade, so to speak.  The number of
people imprisoned in prolonged sentences and "assigned" to stay nearby the
camps after they completed their jail terms far exceeds the Soviet's.  Besides,
the CCP "improved" the system from a terrorizing tool to a business
proposition.

>
>>The Gulag makes so much money that it more than covers its costs.
>
>Show us the data, "so much", $10 per prisoner per month?
>

Anyone, who is interested in the data, should know where to look for.  In fact,
it has been neatly documented by the Chinese Justice Ministry in its annual
reports.  The officials proudly pointed to the improvements that they helped
earn hard currency.  It was a whopping 22% jump from 1987 to 1988 alone.

>
>>One of the
>>reasons for the success of joint ventures with China is the fact that prison
>>labor is so cheap.
>
>So cheap, also so stupid and so unreliable. I haven't seen any economic
>research on this great proposition. I know there are some econmoists on
>this net. Does anyone want to pick up this topic? It will promise a
>breakthrough and a series of papers, if not another book. :-)
>

In light of the fact that the data was provided by the Chinese government,  Mr.
might want to reconsider his harsh criticism of the reliability of its source?!
You see, the CCP reads on this net too.  Thank you very much.

>
>
>William Deng
>
>(for the complete review article, please refer to 9/14/92's CND book reviews)
>