"Indifference to objective truth is encouraged by the sealing-off of one part of the world from another, which makes it harder and harder to discover what is actually happening"
- George Orwell.

Information is incredibly precious when speaking on the Laogai system, in direct proportion to its scarcity.  The truth, even the tedious factual evidence, on the Laogai system is heavily guarded.  In China it is classified as a "state secret" - in the same way that Shi Tao and countless others have been locked away for years for the capital crime of "Revealing state secrets."  Harry Wu, an American citizen photographing Chinese prisons in 1995 was arrested and sentenced to 15 years in prison for the crime of "stealing state secrets."  Even as the Laogai system evolves and internationalizes, even as it is present everywhere and in the minds of every Chinese citizen, sharing information on the Laogai system is a criminal offense.

On the 61st anniversary of the People's Republic of China, we at the Laogai Research Foundation are intimately aware that the dangers of inquiry into the Laogai system are greater than ever.  When we first began building our Archive, therefore, we were deeply conscientious about the politically-charged nature of the collections we were building - not because they were contentious in content, but because the act of making our collections public was a challenge to the political power of one of the most powerful governments in the world.  The Laogai Archives is the largest archives of documentation on the Laogai system outside those internal collections of the Chinese government itself, and to make our collections public was to shout the unspeakable (on the Internet where even Chinese citizens themselves could possibly hear).

The Laogai Archives contains detailed information on over 1, 200 Chinese prisons and other Laogai facilities, including the enterprise information on many of those that use forced labor to produce goods that are sold for profit by the Chinese Communist Party.  It also contains over 100 public documents, photographs, and videos which detail the incredible range of the Laogai system throughout its existence, from criminal convictions of "Anti-Rightist Elements" during the Cultural Revolution to hidden camera footage of prisoners laboring on farms in the 1990s. 

Human memory is a fluid creature, prone to revision in the face of change and political will.  George Orwell pointed out the power of archives to stand against "the organized lying practiced by totalitarian states" and the infinite significance of the "reliable document" in the support of memory.  We believe that among the thousands of documents contained in our archives, which we hope to bring online within the next year, will be the handful of documents that enable a more truthful story to be told with respect to human rights and social justice in China, and in particular on the painful narratives that continue to emerge on the brutal Laogai system. 

On the 61st anniversary of the triumph of the Chinese Communist Party, we would like to issue a challenge in the service of memory, firm in the conviction that we all have an obligation to remember the millions of victims of the Laogai system.  We invite you to join us.