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''Laogai'', the abbreviation for ''Láodòng Gǎizào'' (勞動改造/劳动改造), which means "reform through labor," is a slogan of the Chinese criminal justice system and has been used to refer to the use of penal labour and prison farms in the People's Republic of China (PRC) which takes up more than half of the world's slaves. ''Laogai'' is distinguished from ''laojiao'', or re-education through labor, which is an administrative detention for a person who is not a criminal but has committed minor offenses, and is intended to reform offenders into law-abiding citizens. Persons detained under ''laojiao'' are detained in facilities that are separate from the general prison system of ''laogai''. Both systems, however, involve penal labor. In 1990 China abandoned the term ''laogai'' and started classifying the facilities as "prisons" instead. China's 1997 revised Criminal Procedure Law brought an end to open ''laogai'' policy.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Chinese Political Prisons ) ((Archived )).〕 The existence of an extensive network of forced-labor camps producing consumer goods for export to Europe and the United States became classified.〔 Translated from Chinese, original source was 〕 Publication of information about China's prison system by Al Jazeera English resulted in its expulsion from China on May 7, 2012.〔("Al Jazeera English to close China bureau" ) Al Jazeera English May 8, 2012〕 ==History== During the 1950s and 1960s, Chinese prisons, similar to organized factories, contained large numbers of people who were considered too critical of the government or "counter-revolutionary." However, many people arrested for political or religious reasons were released in the late 1970s at the start of the Deng Xiaoping reforms. In the 21st century, critics have said that Chinese prisons produce products for sale in foreign countries, with the profits going to the PRC government.〔"(Forced Labor in China )." (Congressional-Executive Commission on China ). Retrieved on 2008-10-16. (Full transcript ) of the roundtable session available.〕 Products include everything from green tea to industrial engines to coal dug from mines. According to the researchers James D. Seymour and Richard Anderson, the products made in laogai camps comprise an insignificant amount of mainland China's export output and gross domestic product, . They argue that the use of prison labor for manufacturing is not in itself a violation of human rights, and that most prisoners in Chinese prisons are serving time for what are generally regarded as crimes in the West. The Western criticism of the ''laogai'' is based not only on the export of products made by forced labor, but also on the claims of detainees being held for political or religious violations, such as leadership of unregistered Chinese House Churches.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Great Separation: House Church Pastor Expects Death in Chinese Prison )〕 While the ''laogai'' has attracted widespread criticism for the poor conditions in the prisons, Seymour and Anderson claim that reports are exaggerated, stating that "even at its worst, the laogai is not, as some have claimed, 'the Chinese equivalent of the Soviet gulag.'"〔 The downfall of socialism has reduced revenue to local governments, increasing pressure for local governments to supplement their income using prison labor. At the same time, prisoners usually do not make a good workforce. The products manufactured by prison labor in China are of extremely low quality and have become unsalable on the open market in competition with products made by non-imprisoned paid labor.〔(【引用サイトリンク】author=Philip P. Pan )〕 Harry Wu has written books, including ''Troublemaker'' and ''Laogai,'' that describe the system from the 19(?)0s to the 1990s. Wu spent nineteen years, from 1960 to 1979, as a prisoner in these camps, for having criticized the government while he was a young college student. Almost starving to death, he eventually escaped to the US. In ''Mao: The Unknown Story'', the Mao biographer Jung Chang and historian Jon Halliday estimate that perhaps 27 million people died in prisons and labor camps during Mao Zedong's rule.〔Chang, Jung and Halliday, Jon. ''Mao: The Unknown Story.'' Jonathan Cape, London, 2005. p. 338: "By the general estimate China's prison and labor camp population was roughly 10 million in any one year under Mao. Descriptions of camp life by inmates, which point to high mortality rates, indicate a probable annual death rate of at least 10 per cent."''〕They say that inmates were subjected to back-breaking labor in the most hostile wastelands, and that executions and suicides by any means (like diving into a wheat chopper) were commonplace.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Laogai」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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