LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION commemorating the Laogai Research Foundation's
Human Rights in China Photo Exhibit

WHEREAS, The Laogai Research Foundation's Human Rights in China Photo
Exhibit will be on display in the New York State Legislative Office
Building in Albany, New York from May 6 - May 11, 2013; and
WHEREAS, The exhibition provides a graphic account of human suffering
which has occurred and still occurs in China today; and
WHEREAS, The Human Rights in China Photo Exhibit exhibition is espe-
cially relevant to New York State as many Laogai survivors live here and
New York State invests in companies which can encourage human rights
reform in China; and
WHEREAS, A former Chinese political prisoner, Harry Wu, established
the Laogai Research Foundation, a non-profit research and public educa-
tion organization; the work of the Laogai Research Foundation is recog-
nized as a leading source of information on the human rights situation
in China's labor camps; and
WHEREAS, Harry Wu was first arrested as a young student in Beijing for
speaking out against the Soviet invasion of Hungary and for criticizing
the Chinese Communist Party; in 1960, he was sent to the Laogai, China's
Gulag, as a "counter-revolutionary rightist"; and
WHEREAS, During the next 19 years he was imprisoned in 12 different
labor camps manufacturing chemicals, mining coal, building roads, clear-
ing land, and planting and harvesting crops; he was beaten, tortured and
nearly starved to death and, he witnessed the deaths of many prisoners
from brutality, starvation and suicide; and
WHEREAS, Released in 1979, Harry Wu finally left China and came to the
United States in 1985 as a Visiting Professor of Geology at the Univer-
sity of California at Berkeley; and
WHEREAS, Later, he began writing about his experiences in the Laogai
and subsequently, he chose to end his academic work and became a human
rights activist dedicated to exposing the truth about the Laogai,
believed to be the largest forced labor camp system in the world today;
and
WHEREAS, In the summer of 1995, Harry Wu was arrested by the Chinese
government as he tried to enter China with valid, legal documentation;
he was held by the Chinese government for 66 days before he was
convicted in a trial for "stealing state secrets"; and
WHEREAS, He was sentenced to 15 years, but was immediately expelled
from China as a result of an extensive international campaign launched
on his behalf; since his release, he has continued his work in publiciz-
ing the fight to condemn the Laogai and document its atrocities; and
WHEREAS, Harry Wu is especially concerned with China's treatment of
its prisoners; and
WHEREAS, Harry Wu supports the right to give birth as a fundamental
right recognized in Article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, a document composed in 1948 by the United Nations; and
WHEREAS, Harry Wu has testified before various United States Congres-
sional committees, as well as the British, German and Australian Parlia-
ments, the European Parliament and the United Nations: and
WHEREAS, Harry Wu is the author of three books; LAOGAI: THE CHINESE
GULAG, published in 1991, is the first book to address the systematic
abuses of the Laogai; BITTER WINDS, published in 1994, is his memoir of
his time in the Laogai; and
WHEREAS, His latest book, TROUBLEMAKER, was published in 1996 and
tells of his clandestine trips back into China to gather evidence on the

Laogai and his detention by the Chinese government in the summer of
1995; and
WHEREAS, Harry Wu received the Freedom Award from the Hungarian Free-
dom Fighters' Federation in 1991; in 1994, he received the first Martin
Ennals Human Rights Award from the Swiss Martin Ennals Foundation; in
1996, he was awarded the Medal of Freedom, also known as the Beggars'
Medal, from the Dutch World War II Resistance Foundation; and, he also
received honorary degrees from St. Louis University and the American
University in Paris in 1996; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to
commemorate the Laogai Research Foundation's Human Rights in China Photo
Exhibit on display in the New York State Legislative Office Building in
Albany from May 6 - May 11, 2013; and be it further
RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be tran-
smitted to the Laogai Research Foundation.