Talk:Laogai

I can't believe how biased the article is. It is washed out of all the human rights violations that are committed in laogais. Another source states: "Exhausting work and being beaten by clubs is a norm. Common punishments include standing stark naked in freezing cold, being locked up for months in rooms of a size of a fridge, or places without light, heating and basic sanitation..."

Another section on prisoner mortality reads: "It is not known what prisoner mortality actually is, but most probably it is similar to stalinist or nazi concentration camps. It is confirmed by few smuggled reports. Out of 10,000 prisoners of five forced labour camps in Jang Calakhla (Northern Tibet), 10-30 people die every day because of starvation, beating or exhaustion."

That should give you an idea.

Another comment I have is that perhaps it's not a human rights violation to use forced labour, but it certainly is to: - jail people without a fair trial or court's decision - beat them - make them work up to 18 hour a day - starve them - make them live in inhumane conditions

Think about this. If PRC were so spotless would they still censor the news??

83.26.228.157 23:19, 23 April 2007 (UTC)Wojtek[reply]

China doesn't have to be spotless - no country is. And no country doesn't censor news. More-importantly, I see this stupid line: `Most prisoners are there for acts considered crimes in the West' Why is the West the standard? Plus, why is everyone ready to believe these wild speculations about prison conditions in these countries? I trust the conditions are very, very bad. But let's not be biased. What am I thinking? This Wikipedia - mouthpiece of the Western majority, be they right or wrong. Revence27 16:35, 10 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Made some extensive changes. There was an implication that Laogai is a system which outside the Chinese criminal justice system and that China runs a system of detention which is separate from the prison system.

In fact the "labor camps" that are being refered to are regular Chinese prisons.

dude, this article has been massacred by a chinese propagandist.

Question on quotas:

Where is the proof that there has been indiscrimminate nabbings to fill quotas? It sounds incredibly far-fetched; are there certified documents that record this purported phenomenon?

Cleanup

OK I removed a few POV statements, some speculations and other unsubstantiated claims. Removed the part about nabbing people randomly, since there is no proof of it yet. If there is, please provide them and it'll go back up. --Mib orovsky 05:18, 1 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

concerned about this

clearly this is something that is not well known outside of the government of china so it is hard to get a fair depiction, but i think it is important for someone to add a section on laogai and laojaoi from earlier time periods when it would have been much much worse (according to the descriptions of harry wu and also bau ruo wang)

Removed text

I took this out: "Chinese use of prison labor is an interesting case study of the interaction between capitalism and prison labor," because it's not very clear from the succeeding passage how and why this is so. - Nat Krause^(Talk!) 07:24, 8 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Deletion

Why doesn't this article have any references? I'm suspecting a Chinese propagandist is to blame, as since they have been allowed access to Wikipedia by their government they seem to be pretty widespread with their vandalism.

Unless someone can create an article that actually cites references I believe it should be completely erased. If there aren't any references to back up the article it looks like any old Joe could have made this up. 220.237.88.203 (talk)