Essay On Chinese Labor Camps

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Chinese labor camps were created in the 1950s by the Kuomintang as a way to get free labor out of Chinese civilians. When civilians were sent to prison, some would stay in prison and others would go to the labor camps. Prisoners were sent to the labor camps as a way to become reformed through a system they called, “re-education through labor.” In the 1950s, prisoners were sent to Chinese labor camps in order to get a “re-education through labor” and hopefully, come out of the system as better and more productive members of society; but after learning about the Laogai system more in depth, they have not become better and more productive members of society. There were approximately 350 Chinese labor camps . The Kuomintang would sentence Chinese civilians who had committed minor offenses and could be reformed to become a better person for the society. The camps that the prisoners had to live in were very unsanitary. Diseases spread like wildfire and their diets were horrendous. Although no one had spoken up and tried to stop the labor camps, the Laogai system violated The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
Beginning in the 1950’s, the Communist Party of China, led by Mao Zedong set up a system called a Lagoai system which means is a “re-education through labor,” which are also referred to as Chinese labor camps. Their system was a way to reform a prisoner to become a better and more productive member of society and to get labor done with little pay to none at all. Another group who helped to contribute to the creation of the labor camps was the Kuomintang. Mao wants this system created in order to gain domestic political control, free labor, and to elimi...

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...Mao Zedong in 1955, although the first camp was not opened until 1956. Throughout 2013, China has been abolishing their labor camps and putting an end to the Laogai system. The labor camps clearly violated the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, by going against people’s human rights and sending them to labor camps without any trials. With as many mental illnesses that are out there due to serious cases like labor camps, the Laogai system did not help the prisoners into being reformed to “normal”. If anything all the labor camps did were scar the prisoners forever. Civilians of the Chinese labor camps were deprived of their freedom and were terrified for their lives after leaving the labor camps. Therefore, prisoners did not come out of the Laogai system better and more productive members of society.

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