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Laogai: Prison Nation - Inside China's Ruling System
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Laogai: Prison Nation - Inside China's Ruling System

2023-03-28 · 61 min / episode · ★ 7.4

Documentary

After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Mao Tsetung established a system of labor camps for systematic repression, known as Laogai, an abbreviation for "Reform Through Labor". In such camps, forced labor and physical and mental torture were used to bring about a so-called mental reform, re-education in the spirit of the Chinese Communist Party. Millions of Chinese were affected. Many were executed. In hundreds of camps, the Party took advantage of the prisoners' free labor to build the economy. Self-criticism and denunciation were often the only way to escape martyrdom. Successive waves of purges culminated in the Cultural Revolution, which saw massive human rights abuses, political assassinations, massacres, and exiles in remote parts of the country. Using unreleased archive footage, the documentary tells the story of the invention, development and improvement of China's totalitarian system of surveillance and repression up to the present day, never told before.

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Production details

Creators
Tania Rakhmanova
Production companies
Yami 2, ARTE, RTS, CNC, PROCIREP
Countries
France, Switzerland
Status
Ended

Top Cast

Camille SannesSelf - Narrator (voice)
Ai WeiweiAi WeiweiSelf - Interviewee
Ren WandingSelf - Interviewee
Wang JuntaoSelf - Interviewee
Li ShuyingSelf - Interviewee
Wei ZidanSelf - Interviewee
Ping HuSelf - Interviewee
Wei JingshengSelf - Interviewee
Gulbahar HaitwajiSelf - Interviewee
Xiao QiangSelf - Interviewee
Tong YiSelf - Interviewee
Teng BiaoSelf - Interviewee
Liao YiwuSelf - Interviewee
Cai ChangguoSelf - Interviewee
Song YongyiSelf - Interviewee
Xu YouyuSelf - Interviewee
Mai GangSelf - Interviewee
Feng GuojiangSelf - Interviewee
Chen PokongSelf - Interviewee
David LiSelf - Interviewee

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