The Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB) welcomes Harry Wu, a distinguished human rights advocate, as a new member of its Advisory Board and looks forward to using his expertise to advance the cause of media freedom. Harry Wu knows first-hand the atrocious conditions of the Laogai in China. In 1960, he was imprisoned at the age of 23 for criticizing the Communist Party, and subsequently spent 19 years toiling in the factories, mines, and fields of the Laogai. He was released in 1979, and came to the US in 1985 with just $40 in his pocket.

Since that time, Harry Wu has traveled back to his native country multiple times to further investigate Laogai camps and continue his call for human rights in China.
In 1992 he founded the Laogai Research Foundation (LRF), www.laogai.org, to gather information on and raise public awareness of the Chinese Laogai.