Harry Wu is an activist for
human rights in the People's Republic of ChinaHuman rights in the People's Republic of China are a matter of dispute between the Chinese government, other countries, international NGOs, and dissidents inside the country. Organizations such as the U.S. State Department, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch have accused the Chinese...
. Now a resident and citizen of the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Wu spent 19 years in Chinese labor camps. In 1992, he founded the
Laogai Research FoundationThe Laogai Research Foundation is a human rights NGO located in Washington, DC. The foundation's mission is to "gather information on and raise public awareness of the Laogai—China’s extensive system of forced-labor prison camps."-History:...
. In 1996 the
Columbia Human Rights Law ReviewThe Columbia Human Rights Law Review is a law review established in 1967 focusing on human rights issues. Produced by students of the Columbia University School of Law, it is "dedicated to the analysis and discussion of human rights and civil liberties under both domestic and international law."The...
awarded Wu its second Award for Leadership in Human Rights.
Biography
Wu was born in
ShanghaiShanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
. He came from a wealthy family; his father was a banker, and his mother was descended from
landlordA landlord is the owner of a house, apartment, condominium, or real estate which is rented or leased to an individual or business, who is called a tenant . When a juristic person is in this position, the term landlord is used. Other terms include lessor and owner...
s. He recalls his childhood as being one of "peace and pleasure" but these fortunes changed after the end of the
Chinese Civil WarThe Chinese Civil War was a civil war fought between the Kuomintang , the governing party of the Republic of China, and the Communist Party of China , for the control of China which eventually led to China's division into two Chinas, Republic of China and People's Republic of...
in 1949: "During my teen-age years, my father lost all his properties. We had money problems. The government took over all the property in the country. We even had to sell my
pianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
."
Wu studied at the Geology Institute in
BeijingBeijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
, where he was first arrested in 1956 for criticizing the
Communist PartyThe Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...
during the brief period of liberalization in China known as the
Hundred Flowers CampaignThe Hundred Flowers Campaign, also termed the Hundred Flowers Movement, refers mainly to a brief six weeks in the People's Republic of China in the early summer of 1957 during which the Communist Party of China encouraged a variety of views and solutions to national policy issues, launched...
. He has also claimed that he protested the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956. In 1960 he was sent to the
laogaiLaogai , the abbreviation for Láodòng Gǎizào , which means "reform through labor," is a slogan of the Chinese criminal justice system and has been used to refer to the use of prison labor and prison farms in the People's Republic of China . It is estimated that in the last fifty years more than...
("reform through labor"), the Chinese labor camp system, as a "
counterrevolutionaryA counter-revolutionary is anyone who opposes a revolution, particularly those who act after a revolution to try to overturn or reverse it, in full or in part...
rightistIn politics, Right, right-wing and rightist generally refer to support for a hierarchical society justified on the basis of an appeal to natural law or tradition. To varying degrees, the Right rejects the egalitarian objectives of left-wing politics, claiming that the imposition of equality is...
." He was imprisoned for 19 years in 12 different camps
mining coalThe goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...
, building roads, clearing land, and planting and harvesting crops. According to his own accounts, he was beaten, tortured and nearly starved to death, and witnessed the deaths of many other prisoners from brutality, starvation, and suicide.
Released in 1979 in the liberalization which followed the death of
Mao ZedongMao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
, Wu left China and went to the United States, where he became a visiting professor. There he began writing about his experiences in China. In 1992 he resigned his academic post and became a human rights activist. He established the
Laogai Research FoundationThe Laogai Research Foundation is a human rights NGO located in Washington, DC. The foundation's mission is to "gather information on and raise public awareness of the Laogai—China’s extensive system of forced-labor prison camps."-History:...
, a non-profit research and public education organization which was financed by the
AFL-CIOThe American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, commonly AFL–CIO, is a national trade union center, the largest federation of unions in the United States, made up of 56 national and international unions, together representing more than 11 million workers...
and was based there in the early years. The work of the foundation is recognized as a leading source of information on China's labor camps, and was instrumental in proving that organs of executed criminals were used for
organ transplantOrgan transplantation is the moving of an organ from one body to another or from a donor site on the patient's own body, for the purpose of replacing the recipient's damaged or absent organ. The emerging field of regenerative medicine is allowing scientists and engineers to create organs to be...
s.
In 1995 Wu, by then a U.S. citizen, was arrested as he tried to enter China with valid, legal documentation. He was held by the Chinese government for 66 days before he was convicted for "stealing
state secretsClassified information is sensitive information to which access is restricted by law or regulation to particular groups of persons. A formal security clearance is required to handle classified documents or access classified data. The clearance process requires a satisfactory background investigation...
." He was sentenced to 15 years in prison, but was instead immediately deported from China. He attributes his release to an international campaign launched on his behalf.
He was awarded the Courage of Conscience Award by the Peace Abbey in
Sherborn, MassachusettsSherborn is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is in area code 508 and has the ZIP code 01770. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, the town population was 4,119. The assessed value of the town for the fiscal year 2005 is $1,008,146,994....
, on September 14, 1995 for his extraordinary sacrifices and commitment to exposing human rights violations in his motherland China.
In November 2008, Wu opened the
Laogai MuseumThe Laogai Museum is a museum in Washington, D.C. which showcases human rights in the People's Republic of China, focusing particularly on the laogai, the Chinese prison system. The creation of the museum was spearheaded by Harry Wu, a well-known Chinese dissident who himself served 19 years in...
in
Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, calling it the first ever United States museum to directly address human rights in China.
Recognition
Wu received the Freedom Award from the Hungarian Freedom Fighters' Federation in 1991. In 1994 he received the first
Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights DefendersThe Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, called also "the Nobel Prize for human rights", was created in 1993 to honour and protect individuals around the world who demonstrate exceptional courage in defending and promoting human rights...
. In 1996, he was awarded the Medal of Freedom from the Dutch World War II Resistance Foundation. He also received honorary degrees from St. Louis University and the
American University of ParisThe American University of Paris is a private, independent, and accredited liberal arts and sciences university in Paris, France. Founded in 1962, the university is one of the oldest American institutions of higher education in Europe...
in 1996.
Wu is currently the Executive Director of the Laogai Research Foundation and the China Information Center. He is also a member of the International Council of the New York-based
Human Rights FoundationThe Human Rights Foundation is a non-profit organization whose stated mission "is to ensure that freedom is both preserved and promoted" in the Americas. The Human Rights Foundation was founded in 2005 by Thor Halvorssen...
.
He is a member of the international advisory council of the
Victims of Communism Memorial FoundationThe Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation is a non-profit educational organization in the United States, established as a result of an Act of Congress in 1993 with the purpose to commemorate "the deaths of over 100,000,000 victims in an unprecedented imperial communist holocaust"...
.
Other
In 2007, Wu criticized the selection of a Chinese sculptor,
Lei YixinLei Yixin is a prominent Chinese sculptor.- Childhood and Education :Lei was born to a family of scholars in Changsha, Hunan, China....
, as the lead sculptor for the
Martin Luther King, Jr. National MemorialThe Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial is located in West Potomac Park in Washington, D.C., southwest of the National Mall . The memorial is America's 395th national park...
based on the fact that Lei had also carved statues celebrating
Mao ZedongMao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
.
Wu also wrote a response to
Simon WiesenthalSimon Wiesenthal KBE was an Austrian Holocaust survivor who became famous after World War II for his work as a Nazi hunter....
's book
The SunflowerThe Sunflower is a book on the Holocaust by Simon Wiesenthal re-tracing his steps to a personal question of forgiveness. The book recounts Wiesenthal's experience in the Lemberg concentration camp and discusses the moral ethics of the matter...
. Wu briefly recounts his story while imprisoned, and responds to the question posed at the end of the book.
Books
- Laogai: The Chinese Gulag
The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...
(1991), the first full account of the Chinese labor camp system.
- Bitter Winds (1994), a memoir of his time in the camps.
- Troublemaker (1996), an account of Wu's clandestine trips to China and his detention in 1995.
- New Ghosts, Old Ghosts, Prisons and Labor Reform Camps in China (1999), by James Seymour and Richard Anderson
see also
- Chinese dissidents
- Human rights in China
Human Rights in China is a New York-based international, Chinese, non-governmental organization with a mission to promote international human rights and advance the institutional protection of these rights in the People's Republic of China....
- Censorship in China
"Censorship in China" can refer to:*Censorship in the People's Republic of China*Censorship in the Republic of China, mainly in Taiwan province after 1949...
- Gulag
The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...
- Labor camp
A labor camp is a simplified detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons...
External links