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.

Feb, 1966

总政治部并各中央局,各省、市、自治区党委,中央各部委,国家机关和人民团体各党委、党组:

中央完全同意萧华同志在全军政治工作会议上的报告,同意会议通过的《继续大力突出政治,坚决执行五项原则》和《...

Feb, 1966

中央决定成立工业交通党委。由薄一波、陶鲁笳、郭洪涛、叶林、李开信、钟民、李人林、邓东哲、高扬文、柴树藩、吴砚农、杨珏、吕东、高扬、段君毅、陈正人、张霖之、康世恩、刘澜波、何长工、钱之光、孔祥祯、徐运北、吕正操、孙大光、王子纲、袁宝华...

Feb, 1966

各中央局,各省、市、自治区党委,中央各部委,国家机关各部门党组、党委,总政治部:

中央同意文化革命五人小组关于当前学术讨论的汇报提纲。现将这个提纲发给你们,望照此执行。

这个提纲的内容,...

Feb, 1966

各中央局,各省、市、自治区党委,中央各部委,国家机关和人民团体各党委、党组,总政治部:

毛泽东同志一九六二年一月三十日“在扩大的中央工作会议上的讲话”,是一个十分重要的马克思列宁主义的文件。中央决定,...

Feb, 1966

提要文学作品的社会效果的形成是复杂的,同作者的创作动机有联系,但不是一回事,不能据效果而定这个或那个动机。学术上的错误不一定都归结为政治上的反动表现。吴晗在现实的政治生活中能够分清敌我,辨别是非,...

Feb, 1966

毛主席教导说:“共产党员无论何时何地都不应以个人利益放在第一位,而应以个人利益服从于民族的和人民群众的利益。因此,自私自利,消极怠工,贪污腐化,风头主义等等,是最可鄙的;而大公无私,积极努力,克己奉公,埋头苦干的精神,才是可尊敬的...

Jun, 2015

吴晗的《海瑞罢官》的要害是罢官,是同庐山会议、同彭德怀的右倾机会主义有关的。对资产阶级意识形态的斗争,是长期的阶级斗争,绝不是匆促做一个政治结论就可以解决的。

(彭真说要对左派“整风”)这样的问题,...

Feb, 1966

不久以前,本报先后发表了沈阳部队某部三连八班班长王道明同志《谈谈练刺杀》的文章,和他们班突出政治的经验。今天,再将他们抓活思想的体会推荐给大家。

八班的同志说:要抓好活思想,“就必须把毛主席的书当作最高指示,...

Feb, 1966

彭真同志:

请商在京常委及康生、定一、伯达诸同志,修改一遍,并考虑是否应中南局的要求印发给县、团级同志看(只发中南局,作为试点,别地不发。)看来此问题很大,要真正实现民主集中制,是要经过认真的教育、试点和推广,...

Feb, 1966

总政治部二月三日发出关于宣传和学习麦贤得同志的通知。通知中说,麦贤得同志不愧为无产阶级的硬骨头,是我军指战员学习的又一个好榜样。总政治部号召全军干部战士向麦贤得同志学习,活学活用毛主席著作,当一辈子共产主义的“义务兵”,...

Feb, 1966

最近召开的全军政治工作会议,根据党中央和毛主席的指示,全面地检查和总结了两年来的政治工作,研究了如何贯彻执行林彪同志提出的继续突出政治的五项原则的问题。会议号召全军干部战士,要紧紧地团结在党中央和毛主席的周围,...

Feb, 1966

最近召开的全军政治工作会议,根据党中央和毛主席的指示,全面地检查和总结了两年来的政治工作,研究了如何贯彻执行林彪同志提出的继续突出政治的五项原则的问题。会议号召全军干部战士,要紧紧地团结在党中央和毛主席的周围,...

Pages