Troublemaker

by Harry Wu, George Vecsey

Harry Wu, China's most prominent dissident exile in the West, spent 19 years condemned as a counterrevolutionary in the laogai, his country's equivalent of the Soviet gulag system of forced labor camps. After escaping to California in 1985 he began a tireless campaign to publicize human rights abuses within the Chinese prison system, including the harvesting of organs from prisoners, and profiteering from forced labor supported by World Bank subsidies and U.S. importing of prison-made goods. Through Vecsey, a columnist for the New York Times, Wu recounts his incessant and intrepid troublemaking, including his clandestine trips back into China, on one of which he was caught, charged with spying, and deported after U.S. pressure for his release.

Genres: China, History, Biography, Asia, Politics, Nonfiction

327 pages, Paperback

First published November 5, 1996

About the author

Harry Wu was a Chinese human rights activist. Wu spent 19 years in Chinese labor camps, and later became a resident and citizen of the United States. In 1992, he founded the Laogai Research Foundation.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the 90's he was detained by China and then released after 45 days or so.

Book is about his travels in China and the prison system and forced labor. Very eye opening. He was 19 years imprisoned for being a rightist because his parents were 'poisoned by the West" for being raised Catholic and having books by Western authors etc. Its hard to get people to talk about the Cultural Revolution because just about every family suffered in some way. But he eventually got out and lives in US now.

[Carol Price · Rating 5 out of 5]

True life account of living - in prison camps - in China. True story of one man's journey through the persecution of being kept in prison camps, as a political prisoner on very thin charges, for the purpose of slave labor. Eye-opening.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very inspiring book, also filled with eye opening information like he says about a subject matter which most people have no idea even exists.

[Shane · Rating 5 out of 5]

brilliant expose.

[Jose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very Sad and true first hand account of Mr. Wu struggle in China, in a Repressive typical communist system, and how he was and is ever so defiant to that system, As any Freedom Loving Man would, China is Not free, Chinese Capitialism is not Capitialism in any sense. It is still A Totalarian Regime. Cuba,China,N.Korea,Venezuela, Iran,Ecuador,Nicaragua,and many others will one day be free from puppet regimes and That hideous form of government known as Communism and it's cousins.

[Joren 白尤恩 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having been investigated and interrogated by the Chinese police myself, I enjoyed reading the delicate balance and cat and mouse between the state and their need for face, as well has Wu's stubborn game of playing them. The more general elements became a bit academic, and most I know so had to plow through. Happy I read it, but also happy I finished it.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Harry Wu, China's most prominent dissident exile in the West, spent 19 years condemned as a counterrevolutionary in the laogai, his country's equivalent of the Soviet gulag system of forced labor camps. After escaping to California in 1985 he began a tireless campaign to publicize human rights abuses within the Chinese prison system, including the harvesting of organs from prisoners, and profiteering from forced labor supported by World Bank subsidies and U.S. importing of prison-made goods. Through Vecsey, a columnist for the New York Times, Wu recounts his incessant and intrepid troublemaking, including his clandestine trips back into China, on one of which he was caught, charged with spying, and deported after U.S. pressure for his release.(less)

Very enlightening book about China, the 'criminals', organ transplants, Harry Wu's heroic efforts to re-enter the country and photograph the Loagai camps.