"Avoiding sensationalism or self-pity, what Mr. Wu has given us is the unemotional and authoritative reference work long needed to complement the vivid but anecdotal accounts of individual prisoners. . . . a comprehensive . . . expose, laying out, in the greatest detail yet available, the history, policies, command structure and scale of the larges

In this work, the author reveals the hidden world of the laogai - the PRC's labour reform camps. The author, a political prisoner for 19 years, takes the reader through the harsh reality found in the camps, describing their ideological origins, complex structures and living conditions. What makes the PRC's laogai unique, according to Wu, is the essential contribution to China's GNP of the commodities produced by the prisoners and the camps' concomitant indispensability to the nation's economic health.