A decade in prison
LAU SHANCHING spent ten years in jail in China, having been convicted of "counter-revolutionary activities" after travelling from Hong Kong to visit families of arrested
Chinese dissidents. At the time of his arrest he was a member of a Hong Kong Trotskyist group; now he describes himself as an independent orthodox Marxist.
IV spoke to Lau when he passed through Paris as part of an international tour he is making to publicize the plight of
China's dissidents. We also publish extracts from his own account of his experiences in prison.
FTEN we read here that the Chinese government successfully has combined a bureaucratic political system based on repression with pro-market reforms, and it is thus a stable government.
I think that the Chinese government is not stable. I do not believe that it can solve the economic problems in China.
The government is not socialist and cannot rely on the workers; and so it is trying to re-introduce capitalism in
China. But capitalism is also unable to solve the country's problems.
• Do you see events in China taking the same path as in the Soviet
Union?
As a world trend Stalinism is collapsing. When the current regime collapses there will be a long period of chaos, as there is no alternative revolutionary regime available. Nobody likes chaos, but there is no other way out of the present situation and is thus a step forward. No one can change this.
Chinese people are aware of what is going on in the Soviet Union. After the
June 4 [Tiananmen Square] massacre some of the warders in my prison, grass roots members of the Communist Party, blamed Gorbachev for what was happening. We discussed the June 1989 events every day in jail at the time - we got the newspapers.
• How did the political prisoners you spoke to in jail assess the
Chinese history of the last 40 years?
On the whole they thought it was a great mistake. They have big illusions in capitalism.
It is not quite the same in China as in
Eastern Europe - there is no support for returning to the imperial system for example; what people imagine is something on American lines, not even something like in Hong Kong. The belief in capitalism is widespread, it is not just something among the intellectuals. Obviously workers approach the question in a more down to earth fashion. • How far have the capitalist reforms gone in China?
In terms of the relationships between companies very far; but if you look at the companies themselves there is no private ownership. • During the 1989 democracy movement the movement seemed to be confined to the towns; the countryside remained indifferent and this was crucial because most of the soldiers are peasants.
Nobody can mobilize the peasants, and it is true that many soldiers are from the villages.
But I think if the movement is strong enough and has a firm enough leadership the army can be divided. • In an article in the Wall Street Journal (February 11, 1992) you say that you went into jail as a radical Trotskyist and that while there you became an "orthodox Marxist".
I use the methodology Marx used in Capital to analyze current reality. In particular it can be used to show that China cannot make a transition to capitalism given the low level of productivity. • In eastern Europe the trend is for Western companies to buy up what they find most useful for their global operations, but there is no overall development of the economy. There is integration into the world capitalist market, but no sign of a position of women?
No, they did not understand this. The Stalinist regime has meant improvements for women. Women can work and are more independent than before. There are women involved in the dissident movement.
The next historical stage in China will be a democratic stage. This will come about in the near future. Everybody thinks that the problem is not Stalinism but socialism. Chinese people are isolated and know nothing about the problems of capitalism. They want a capitalist system. They will have to learn from their own experiences. In Russia there were very prominent figures inside the party stating their opinions, but there is none of this openness in China. • What about Hong Kong?
Nearly all the newspapers and the TV interviewed me when I arrived. But the problem in Hong Kong is that no one speaks for the workers there. The industrial working class there is collapsing; there was a very skilled working class ten years ago, but many of the industries have moved to China. Now they become waiters and so on.
It is very easy to travel between Hong Kong and Guangzhou in southern China. There was only a very weak mobilization here even during the June 4 movement. Southern people are said to be more concerned about profits than politics. Political experience is better in the north. Beijing is the centre of everything — the first movement, the 1976 demonstration in favour of Zhou Enlai and the Democracy Wall movement took place there.
I intend to become politically active in the workers' movement in Hong Kong and stand for election as an independent leftist candidate. There are elections planned for 1995. • What about your present tour?
I am going to London where I will meet MPs and meet democratic activists, human rights' groups, overseas Chinese and so on. I have been to Geneva to talk with the UN Human Rights Commission. • Any message for our readers?
I am optimistic about the situation in Hong Kong and China; I am convinced there will be a mass movement in China 23 in the near future. *
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CHINA fully developed domestic capitalism. The same is possible in China. Marx emphasized the question of ownership of property; from this point of view there is no capitalist class in China. • Did the political prisoners discuss social questions, such as the
Inside the Chinese
International Viewpoint # 225 • March 30, 1992
CHINA
Gulag
Lau Shanching
N December 1981 I went to Guangzhou alone to visit the wives of Wang Xizhe and Ha Qui (both of whom had been arrested). I mainly wanted to see how they were getting on - we discussed the future of the democracy movement and I gave them some clothes. At midnight I was arrested by the Public Security Service at Liu Hua Guest House and was sent to a detention I noticed that the guards of the detention centre had been withdrawn to keep my arrest a secret. They said that I had committed the "crime of counter-revolutionary propaganda" which included sending money and books to the relatives of pro-democracy elements.
However the books they mentioned were only some titles on political economy and The Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution [the classic study written in the 1930s by the Trotskyist author Harold Isaacs], whose author had been mentioned by a local newspaper previously.
I had been arrested simply because the authorities wanted to suppress the pro-democracy movement. In fact, the suppression had begun nine months before my return. I assumed that it would be safe enough for me to visit.
The months of solitary confinement
From the day of my arrest on December 27, 1981, to the day I was sentenced I spent almost 18 months in solitary confinement in the Guangzhou Hwang Hua Detention Centre...
During my time there I was totally insulated from the outside world, with nobody to talk to and with almost nothing to read except, in the later days, Nan Fang Daily. There was no mirror or clock. I totally lost the concept of time, even of an idea of when I would get my meals...
After almost a year, and following numerous requests, I was allowed to use the money I had when I was arrested to 24 buy something to read (some books by Marx and Engels, the Dream of the Red
Chamber and some Russian novels) and some dried beef and powdered milk. Later on I was able to borrow books from the centre's library, but most of them were political dogma.
After 18 months I was sent to Meizhou Prison. They used a Toyota saloon to deliver me alone rather than allowing me to travel with other prisoners. The day trip from the detention centre to Meizhou prison was my greatest relaxation since I was
Mid 1983-Mid 1988: The days in Meizhou Prison
It was almost Mid Autumn Festival by the time I arrived at Meizhou Prison. The head (ke zhang) of the prison's political department provided me with my first lecture (do not make friends with other people) and I was assigned a guardian — a labour-reform prisoner — to make sure I did not make contact with other prisoners.
In theory, we were treated like ordinary workers in terms of working hours and labour security.
In the evening we had lectures on political study and propaganda meetings or briefings. Sunday was a day off and we were allowed to watch television, play chess and ball games, and occasionally watch
Prisoners from each unit were kept in a two-storey block. There were six cells on each floor which could take 12 or 13 prisoners each. There was a leader in each cell (also a prisoner) who was responsible for the cell management and political study.
After work every prisoner had to return to their cell. By 7 pm cadres would take the attendance register and then the political education would start.
It was all about asking prisoners to confess to their crime, follow instructions and report on the performance of their cellmates. Group discussions followed the lecture, aided by cadres and usually chaired
This kind of "political study" was held every night and we were forced to state our standpoint. I used to refuse to say anything, which made my situation worse...
Most of my block-mates were hooligans and criminals, only a few of them were political criminals. Even then, their involvement was more military and regional. Put simply, their political perceptions and cultural level were quite low. Cases such as myself were very rare in Meizhou Prison.
Cadres selected labour reform leaders from the prisoners in each cell. The leaders were responsible for cell management, reporting on the situation and individual behaviour in his cell. Most prisoners would try to please him to have a better
My relation with all of them was quite bad, because I insisted on not pleading guilty, and I was labelled as an extreme reactionary, even worse than Jiang Jieshi [Chiang Kai-Shek - the former leader of the bourgeois nationalist Guomindang]. I was blamed whenever there was any dispute.
As all the cell-mates knew that the cadre disliked me I was bullied and tricked into making mistakes. As a result I was punished frequently. I was locked up in the dark room (solitary confinement) twice and foot-shackled more than once.
Whenever I was shackled, I had to selfcensor my thoughts until it satisfied the cadres. No matter how tough I was, eventually I had to write self critical articles to confess my faults. If the cadres were unhappy with it, it had to be rewritten...
The dark room
My first experience of the dark room happened not long after I arrived at Meiz-
There was an annual assessment, which was considered quite important, of the political study of each prisoner. Everyone had to write a report confessing their crimes, expressing their willingness to obey instructions and to express their attitude towards mental reform, labour attitude and labour reform.
I refused to write my report for the first year and the cadres found this intolerable. However, because of my particular situation they could not hit me but came to talk to me every day, lecturing me repeatedly despite my reluctance. I was also attacked by labour reform leaders and members during the nightly group discussions.
After about a month I replied with a report in which I claimed that I was innocent and had been condemned owing to the irresponsibility of the judge. This irritated the cadres very much and they put me in the dark room.
I was kept for ten days until I wrote a repentance. But I only said I should have listened to what the cadres had said and did not admit to any counter-revolutionary
March 30, 1992• #225 International Viewpoint crime.
My second experience of the dark room was when I asked my parents to smuggle my prosecution document back to Hong Kong. This time I was held for more than a month and was released only because I was transferred to Huaiji Prison.
That month was the most difficult of my time in prison...
I was the only Meizhou prisoner who refused to confess. Sometimes I questioned my stubbornness and sometimes gave way under the endless pressure of the cadres. Eventually I confessed. This happened only once and about a year later, I changed my mind.
Generally speaking, confession and performance (writing something on a noticeboard glorifying the Chinese Communist Party for example were rewarded with shortened imprisonment. You could also "light ashes" that is report on other priso-
My confession was only about 200 words long. I asked for lenient treatment from the authorities but I did not glorify the party nor light ashes.
As it became clear that my sentence would not be reduced a year later I withdrew my confession. During that year my life was significantly easier, after it I experienced the most difficult 18 months of my
Mid 1988-December 1991:
Huaiji Prison
Early one morning I was told by the ke zhang to pack my belongings and go with
I had no idea where we were going. We travelled to Guangzhou Prison where I was kept overnight in the dark room. The following morning we set out for Huaiji. When we got there I was put in a "special middle team for counter-ideological manage-
This was a prison within a prison which was totally isolated from from other buildings and was specially designed to hold political criminals of the pro-democracy movement in Guangdong Province. The prisoners I met there included Wang Xizhe, He Qui, Lo Haixing, Li Peicheng, Li Longqing, Zheng Yinwu.
Wang Xizhe, who had arrived earlier, witnessed the construction process of this special building which was under the direct control of the Labour Reform Office. Its ordinary cells were even smaller than the dark room at Meizhou.
When the construction work was about to finish it was demolished and rebuilt. It is believed that the authorities were afraid of being challenged by prisoners once they were released.
As a prisoner directly managed by the
Labour Reform Office, my stay in Meizhou Prison was only transitional.
Be were supposed to have been sent is prison which was not ready un
Other political prisoners nine months ago.
Wan Xizhe was arrested in 1981 and sentenced to 14 years in prison. His physical condition is very bad... His mental condition is even worse, and he is very
During the democracy movement in 1989, we four discussed the events by shouting through the windows every eve-
Our discussion usually took more than an hour. We exchanged through the bits and pieces we read in the People's Daily and China Daily.
We had a meeting with the cadres where they screened the official version of the massacre, showing tanks, acts of arson, people being killed and shot at, or mobs throwing stones.
That was our first sight of the situation. After the screening the cadres were not confident enough to ask us to show our attitude, since we had been yelling and shouting anti-CCP slogans throughout the
Even the cadres opposed the bloody suppression. I said to them: "many people were killed during Mao's days" to which they replied "they shouldn't kill people during peaceful times". During that period we had our discussion shouting through the windows, while the cadres had theirs in
Prison measures were not tightened after the June 4 massacre. It was believed that word would get to the United Nations and arouse a strong response. However, solitary confinement itself is already very inhu-
I had already forgotten the exact date when my sentence would finish. It was not until the eve, December 24, 1991, that I learned my release was imminent. The ke zhang announced my release certificate on Christmas Day... On December 26, 1991, they used my money to hire a car which brought me to the main road. From there I continued my journey like an ordinary passenger to Guangzhou. *