Digitized Archives

Welcome to our digitized archives! We hope the documents in this digitized collection offers you a productive research opportunity. For the convenience of researchers, each document in this collection is arranged next to its English translation. Although limited in size, this collection contains many documents that are still sensitive today. Accordingly, this collection is the result of more than twenty years of often dangerous efforts to procure information on historical human rights abuses in China. Although it is our hope to one day digitize our entire archives, at the moment we can only digitize a select number of documents. The documents in this collection were chosen by LRF staff for digitization because of their fundamental importance in understanding the Laogai System and its development over time. Below you will find a brief overview of the contents in this collection.

Most of our digitized collection speaks to exactly how the Chinese Communist Party established the Laogai System and what groups of people the Laogai System targeted. Given that the Laogai System matured and solidified during the 1950s, much of our collection originates from that decade. Take, for example, the Central Committee’s May 1951 directive titled  “Third National Public Security Conference’s Resolution to Issues of Organizing National Laogai Prisoners.” This directive details the structure and rationale of the reform through labor system and therefore informed subsequent directives. Yet another directive, the Standing Committee’s August 1957 “Laodong Jiaoyang (Laojiao) Reeducation Through Labor,” details the structure and rationale of the reeducation through labor system.

Our digitized collection also speaks to how the Laogai System transformed during different eras of Chinese history. Our documents from the Cultural Revolution, for example, demonstrate the erosion of a structured and hierarchical Laogai System as China devolved into quasi-anarchy. Conversely, our documents from the immediate post-Cultural Revolution era demonstrate a concerted effort on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party to reassert total control over the Laogai System.

In addition to the development and transformation of the Laogai System, our digitized collection also contains documents that speak to the persecution of specific activities or people. For example, “Exhibition of Incriminating Evidence against Counterrevolutionaries and Other Criminals,” which was compiled and printed for internal use by the Ministry of Public Security in October 1957, details the counterrevolutionary crimes of Catholic Bishop Kung Pin-Mei. Yet another document, written on March 22, 1973 by the Revolutionary Committee of Li County, details the punishment of Zhen Zechun. 


In addition to the digitized collection embedded above that is a translated and downloadable PDF document, below you will find another digitized collection of select Chinese language documents from the Cultural Revolution that can be searched and filtered to simplify the research process.

Jul, 1969

各盟市、旗县、公社革委会。并报北京军区、中央:

一、为了便于领导和加强战备,经伟大领袖毛主席、林付主席批准,决定把我区东、西两段部分行政区划作跨区调整,即:东段的呼伦贝尔、哲里木、...

Jul, 1969

毛主席批示:照发。

各省、市、自治区革命委员会:

现将上海市革命委员会《关于上海开展夏季爱国卫生运动的情况报告》转发耠你们,供参考。...

Jul, 1969

周恩来康生在听取杨得志等赴京汇报山东批判王效禹运动情况时的谈话要点

一九六九年七月二十三、二十四日

(杨得志司令员传达记录稿·1969年7月29日)

...

Jul, 1969

工人阶级向上层建筑领域进军的光辉节日──“七·二七”一周年来到了。

一年前的七月二十七日,遵照伟大领袖毛主席的伟大战斗号令建立起来的、在中国共产党领导下的我国第一支工人、解放军毛泽东思想宣传队,肩负着“...

Jul, 1969

工人阶级向上层建筑领域进军的光辉节日──“七·二七”一周年来到了。

一年前的七月二十七日,遵照伟大领袖毛主席的伟大战斗号令建立起来的、在中国共产党领导下的我国第一支工人、解放军毛泽东思想宣传队,肩负着“...

Jun, 1969

同志们:

今天我以万分沉痛的心情,向我们直属机关毛泽东思想大学校全体同志们来检查我所犯的严重错误。我的错误是十分严重的。在最近广大革命群众按照毛主席5·22批示和中央对内蒙的指示的精神,...

Jul, 1969

中国共产党第九次全国代表大会以来,在伟大领袖毛主席关于“团结起来,争取更大的胜利”的号召鼓舞下,全国形势大好。山西省同全国一样,形势也是好的,但是,在太原市、晋中、晋南的部份地区,混在各派组织中的一小撮阶级敌人和坏头头,...

Jul, 1969

康生姚文元等对山东在京毛泽东思想学习班负责人的谈话

一九六九年七月十九日·北京人民大会堂福建厅

参加接见的中央首长:康生、姚文元、李作鹏,陪同接见的有聂济峰、贺盛柱同志。

...

Jul, 1969

(一九六九年七月十三日夜在地质局礼堂)

同志们:

我看今天咱们先达成一项协议,怎么样?中央有个规定,象我们这样一些人讲话,不能录音的,中央有规定的,希望我们今天不要录音了,...

Jul, 1969

(根据七月九日在军区大礼堂为司令部全体干部职工家属所放的记录整理)

时间:七月六日晚十时至七月七日下午二时(共接见十六个小时)

地点:三○师礼堂

出席者:...

Jul, 1969

周恩来康生接见中央办的毛泽东思想学习班山东学习班主要负责人时的谈话

一九六九年七月五、七日·北京

七月五日晚九时零十分至六日早一时零十分,中央首长总理、伯达、康生、江青、文元、永胜、法宪、叶群、作鹏、...

Jul, 1969

〖吴宓,时任西南师范学院中文系教授,四川省政协委员。〗

(吴宓于1969年5月9日在西南师范学院梁平分校召开的中文系革命师生批斗大会上被恶意推倒致左腿骨折,一直未得妥善治疗。...

Pages