 Internationally recognized human rights speaker, writer, on campus Tuesday
Harry Wu, who has powerfully documented on film and in books human rights violations in a Chinese prison, will speak at 7 p.m Tuesday, April 3 in Sub Ballroom A. His lecture, "China: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow," is sponsored by the MSU Leadership Institute, is free to the public. Wu is the author of the international best-seller, "Bitter Winds" Wu is the founder and executive director of the Laogai Research Foundation, and is a well-known and respected human rights campaigner. He spent 19 years incarcerated by the Chinese government in the "Bamboo Gulag" as a political prisoner. There he survived beatings, torture and starvation in 12 forced labor camps for his criticism of the Communist Party and other issues. He has repeatedly risking his life returning to China to document slavery and human rights abuses. Wu came to the United States in 1979. Since 1991, Wu has returned to China three times in order to secretly visit prison camps and film the human rights atrocities occurring there. He testified before the U.S. Congress on human rights abuses in 1990. In 1993 he received the prestigious Martin Ennals Human Rights Award. Returning to China again in 1995, he was arrested, found guilty of "stealing state secrets," sentenced to 15 years in prison, and was then expelled. Wu received the AFL-CIO's Award For Outstanding Public Service and Leadership on Issues Affecting All Working Men and Women in 1993. In a 1998 story, ABC News credited Wu with uncovering forced abortions and sterilizations as well as alleged sales of human organs in China. Wu's international best-seller, "Bitter Winds," is an account of Wu's imprisonment and survival that displays extraordinary acts of courage and of unforgettable heroism. Wu recalls life in the prison camps in great detail-scavenging barren fields for frogs and snakes and engaging in elaborate "food imaging" sessions in the barracks at night. Left for dead in nightmarish solitary confinement, Wu fought back from the brink of insanity, refusing to relinquish his dignity. In the fall of 1996, Wu published "Troublemaker: One Man's Crusade Against China's Cruelty." The book explains his repeated returns to China.
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