Laogai Camps Flashcards
What was the official theory behind the Laogai?
The camps were places of reeducation, where those who opposed Mao were misguided and had to be trained to see things clearly.
How were prisoners maltreated in camps?
The camps were set up in extreme weather environments.
They were forced to do humiliating and arduous labour.
Prisoners had to make a full confession of their crimes, if they did not they would be interrogated, deprived of sleep, beaten, and starved.
Even after death, the organs of executed prisoners could be extracted and sold without the family’s permission
What was the average number of people held in camps each year during Mao’s rule?
10 million
How many prisoners died in the camps?
Over 25 million
How many Laogai camps were there by the time of Mao’s death?
Over 10,000
What was the economic significance of the Laogai camps?
Taking advice from the soviet runners of the Gulag, the camps were used to supply an inexhaustible supply of slave labour in the Great Leap Forwards, for dangerous tasks such as clearing malarial swamps and mining.
How did the Laogai camps allow Mao to exercises social control?
Their existence terrified the population into conformity. Even those who were released were under the constant threat of being sent back - the effect of being a Laogai inmate was massive as well, as when you returned, many shops would not sell you goods, homes and jobs were impossible to obtain and children were denied places in school.
