Two powerhouses govern the people in different ways
Kensley Lewis
Layout Editor
Ever wondered what its like to live under total
depression of labor camps for over half of a century, regulated by the
state as a positive solution to contain anti-communist citizens?
Or how about being brutally murdered or publicly
killed by state officials for simply voicing your opinion against
government policy as well? Well the people China have been facing these
tribulations for 50 plus years and it is assumed that various labor
camps are still active. One individual who lived to experience these
labor camps in China and who was further set free due to international
pressure on the state, was Harry Wu. His detention was related to his
involvement in publicizing information about political imprisonment and
human rights abuses in China.
Harry Wu was born in China and is the founder and
Executive Director of the Laogai Research Foundation. He is a
well-known and respected human rights campaigner, particularly focusing
on the Laogai (Labor camp) system in China. In 1960 he was arrested and
spent 19 years in a labor camp for expressing his political ideas. He
left China in 1985 to become an American Citizen and is continuously at
work in trying to set anti-communist people free from the labor camps in
China. His Research center has documented nearly 100 forced labor
camps, producing $800 million in sales, listed in a prestigious
international business directory.
Some particular details for the purpose of the
Laogai labor camp involves breaking down all of the prisoners mentally
and physically to a point of being brain washed by communist
totalitarian theory. The reason for this basic strategy is to reach a
goal of thought reform. Such regulations controlled by Communist
officials have brought many dissident resisters to their graves.
One thing that we don’t hear about much is how
people in China are practically like us. Dissident resisters have been
sustained since the late 1970s with fundamentals that are based on a
peaceful nature, but they are less fearful of waging organized
resistance. Although they are smaller in numbers when compared to
ordinary resisters, they take major opposing steps towards the Chinese
government such as issuing open letters, appeals and declarations as
well as filling formal applications. These pro-democracy activists
believe that an intellectual influence is an instrument in fomenting the
debate on political reforms. They avoid the tactics of street politics
and none of their protests are violent. They not only target local
political leaders, but an international audience as well.
These Chinese citizens have been fighting for
several things that we as Americans have slowly taken for granted;
justice, basic human rights, freedom of religion and autonomy for ethnic
minorities.
Even though dissident resistors and other
pro-democracy activist like Harry Wu, have influenced many of the middle
and lower class people of China through out the century, Communist
Officials have continuously pushed towards threatening, abusive and
slaughtering tactics on these same individuals. This situation is just
a sample of the various problems that China has faced through out its
past. You always hear about the pride of the United States, in how we
are better than China and other communist countries, but yet you were
never taught about our similar mistakes such as setting up forced labor
camps during WWI for Japanese citizens. Why? Well no matter how you
slice and dice it, the fact of the matter is, is that the abuse of power
is everywhere. There is no individual or group or state or nation that
is completely better off than the next. Within this finite world we
should perhaps consider in viewing ourselves before we view others. By
understanding the circumstances that China has been under for the past
century, it should make us appreciate more of what we have politically,
socially and economically. It should also help us to realize that we
are not in such tragic state as we think we are, assuming that we
(various groups) have it so bad that there is no hope to survive in this
country. We are a free nation with the ability to vote, to think for
ourselves and become the best of citizens that we can possibly be. Lets
lean towards these dreams and appreciate that.
