At Roman Forum . . . Harry Wu Tells of China's Continuing Horrors by Thomas A. Droleskey MONTVALE, N.J.-Chinese dissident turned American citizen Harry Wu headlined an all-day meeting here at the Roman Forum on Sunday, Feb. 23rd. The conference, sponsored by Keep the Faith, was convened to examine the following question: "The Berlin Wall is down. But is Communism really dead?" The answer from the four speakers who addressed the forum (Dr. William Luckey of Christendom College, Dr. Wu, Dr. William Marra, and this writer) was a resounding "No! Communism is alive and well, both in its overt and subtle manifestations." Dr. Wu, who was the third speaker of the day, gave a brief biography of himself to the crowd of over 150 at the Montvale Inn. "Who is Harry Wu? Harry Wu is not John Huang," he said to the delight of the audience. Wu was born in 1937. He explained how the Communist Party had "invited" him in 1957 to discharge his mind concerning the brutal Soviet invasion of Hungary the year before. Wu criticized the invasion, whereupon he was given a life sentence for being a "counterrevolutionary." He was 23 years of age when the "legal process" confirmed his sentence; he wound up serving 19 years in the laogai, which is the Chinese word for the network of concentration camps/slave labor factories which exist in Communist China. He said that the Chinese government has branded him a "troublemaker." Wu remarked, "I am happy they think I am a troublemaker; I a troublemaker for those who oppose human dignity and sentence innocent people to death by the truckloads. "I want to see every dictionary in every language in the whole world include the word 'laogai.' You all know about the Nazi death camps and the Soviet gulags. It is time that everyone knows about the laogai." Wu went on to say that the Chinese political system is based upon abject violence against the human being. "About 25% of the Chinese people know someone in their own families who has been in the laogai, if they have not been there themselves." Among those thrown into the laogai in the years after the 1949 takeover of mainland China by Mao Tse-tung and his band of bloodthirsty revolutionaries were landlords, capitalists, officers of the Kuomintang Party (KMT), intellectuals, and Catholic priests. It was interesting, Wu noted, that Bishop [now Cardinal] Ignatius Kung was arrested and thrown into prison in the same year, 1956, as Joseph Cardinal Mindszenty took refuge in the American embassy in Budapest, Hungary. Both men lived long enough to taste freedom, but both were victims of the Communist attempt to crush the influence of Catholicism behind the Iron and Bamboo Curtains. China's deplorable record on human rights cannot be "redeemed" by the economic progress that took place under the late Deng Xiaoping, Wu stated. "Deng is finished. Communism goes on. But why is the Butcher of Beijing applauded as a hero in your country? Why? Because your companies want to make money there. Your companies and politicians do not care about slave labor. They do not care about the execution of the innocent. They do not care about human rights. They care about copyrights and national security. But what they have done is to help turn China into an economic and military giant. But it is still a giant which crushes human beings." Wu also noted that former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger recommends doing more and more business with China. "This man makes a lot of money in China. He is not concerned about human suffering. He is concerned about money and strategy." He pointed out that China is the only nation which now has the capability (and the will) to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles against the United States. And the United States, he said, is helping China aim the dagger at its own throat. "The White House is no longer the White House. It is the House," Wu said. "The United States is undermining its own security and aiding the murderers and butchers of Beijing. "It is a very bad thing to be branded a troublemaker in China," Wu reported. "My family received threatening phone calls. Thugs would threaten my family and my friends." People were encouraged to shun Wu's family, he reported. "The world has to do something about the laogai," Wu pleaded. "I want the world to erect a Laogai Memorial Museum, patterned after the Holocaust Memorial Museum." Loud applause greeted that statement. "What will it take for the world to wake up? Brutal totalitarianism. The crushing of religion. The execution of political prisoners so that they could 'donate' body parts to foreigners seeking organ transplants. "Human dignity means nothing to your greedy politicians and corporate leaders. They see China as a great place to make money. And it does make good business sense. No unions. No strikes. Slave labor. The state maintains order for you. Why do your people give China MFN [most favored nation] status but penalize Cuba and Iraq? If you can make money in China, why not in those countries? Capitalism doesn't mean democracy. Money doesn't mean human liberty." Wu told of priests who have been sentenced to hard labor. One priest, a Fr. Chai, spent 33 years in a Chinese laogai. This man was put into a tiny cell (3 feet high. 6 feet deep, 3 feet wide) for 11 days of solitary confinement because he was caught praying. "Chinese authorities do not want any display of religion in the laogai," Wu said. "Prisoners are told to report on their fellow prisoners who prayed." By contrast, Wu said that his own experience in solitary confinement was "No big deal. I could stand up in my cell." He said that China masks the fact that many of its products are made in slave labor camps. "Prison camp and labor camp, same thing. Among the products available in the United States that are made in such camps are chemicals, textiles, and rubber shoes. Fifty percent of the rubber shoes sold here are made in China. Wal-Mart is the biggest seller of these shoes." He said that it is difficult to prove these allegations, as the Chinese move the camps periodically. But he said that the United States government has identified 26 products as being made in such camps. And he, Wu took a concealed video camera into China in 1995 to put these charges on the record. Wu displayed great stoicism when describing his own experience in the laogai. "My life was very sad. I was very disappointed, very confused. I was branded an enemy of the state. I felt like a species of an animal, and I lived like a beast. Some people in laogai prefer death. I tried, but was not successful." The Number One Troublemaker Wu was released in 1979, eventually making his way to the United States. Although he had an appointment as a visiting professor at the University of California at Berkeley, Wu said that he did not have a salary. He was happy to be free, trying to turn the page and start a new life. But it was difficult for him to survive for the first few months; he was reduced to sleeping on the street or in the bus station. Finally, however, he got a job making doughnuts at Dunkin Donuts, where he worked from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. five nights a week. "I had to make 72 dozen doughnuts a day. No big deal. For breakfast, I ate doughnuts. For lunch, I ate doughnuts. For dinner, I ate doughnuts. Today, I never eat doughnuts." He said that he was happy to be able to think what he wanted to think and to say what he wanted to say. His most important mission, as he continues to see it, was to publicize the horrors of life, in Communist China. Shortly after obtaining United States citizenship in 1994, Wu armed with an American passport, entered China, visiting 27 labor camps in 28 days. The videotape footage he shot there was shown as part of a British Broadcasting Company documentary in 1994. But it was when he returned to China in 1995 that he was arrested again. The Chinese authorities had caught on that he was traveling under an American passport. He was convicted of subversive activities, and branded this second time as "the number one troublemaker among overseas Chinese." Wu's release in 1995 was brought about by the Clinton Administration. Embarrassed because a U.S. citizen had been sentenced for political crimes by the host nation of the UN Conference on Women (which took place in Beijing, September, 1995), the administration tied Hillary Rodham Clinton's appearance at that conference to Wu's release. The Chinese government relented and released Wu. That enabled Mrs. Clinton to attend the conference, which featured speakers claiming, among other things, that there are five genders. Dr. Wu was able, however, to document the fact that prisoners condemned to death in China are killed periodically to enable foreign patients to receive organ transplants. And many of the organs obtained in this brutal manner are shipped overseas (he said that up to 100,000 kidneys have been exported). He showed news stories produced by NBC-TV which used his own footage; the display was most graphic. Prisoners are shot in the head-and then rushed into a medical vehicle where their body parts are taken out. Most of them are still alive as their parts are being removed. In some instances, however, prison guards repeatedly step on the stomachs of those shot so as to force all of the air out. A final indignity is that the families of those executed and dissected are then charged for the bullet and the cremation! Wu confirmed that 14 million abortions are performed in China each year, with 10% of those being forced abortions. And he said during a question-and-answer period that reports of the cannibalizing of aborted babies in restaurants in China are true. He also agreed with this writer's view that American voters should hold conservative Republicans to account for enabling the brutality of the Communists in China to continue. With respect to the boycotting of goods made in China, Wu made two distinctions. He said that it is getting very difficult to buy things made in China. He encouraged people, however, to boycott all goods made in China as a way of expressing anger over the crimes of the Chinese Communists, as well as punishing those in this country who support MFN and continued investment in this merchant of international evil. Insofar as goods are concerned, however, he said that it is often difficult to prove that a certain product is made in a slave labor camp. "The best thing to do," Wu said, "is to target one thing, toys." He said that toys are easy to identify and to isolate (most Fisher-Price toys are made in China). "You should have a 'toycott' of toys made in China," Wu said. He then asked me if would publicize such a "toycott," and I responded by saying that we would do so gladly. "It would help," I noted, "if you folks worked on increasing our subscriptions! Chinese toys. Increase subscriptions to " The Errors Of Russia Dr. William Luckey, chairman of the Department of Politics and Economics at Christendom College, gave an informative-talk on the philosophical nature of Communism, explaining how many manifestations of it are to be found in American politics and government today. Dr. Marra, the well-known apologist and professor emeritus of philosophy at Fordham University, spoke on the errors of Russia that our Lady warned the world about at Fatima, examining those errors (based in materialism) in light of the temptations our Lord endured during His 40 days in the desert. And this writer gave a presentation on how the indifferentism preached by Masonry has created an ethos whereby Catholics in democratic cultures believe that salvation is to be obtained in the here and now, which in many instances paves the way for an acceptance of incremental statism. A highly informative presentation that was not originally part of the scheduled program was given by a mother and daughter, Mary M. Helmueller and Mary Therese Helmueller, both clinical nurses from St. Paul, Minn., who also run Guadalupe Travel. They told the harrowing story (which Mary Therese is writing for ) of how Mary Helmueller's mother (Mary Therese's grandmother) was put to death in a Catholic health care facility. They reported that decisions are being made daily in such facilities as to who will live and who will die. Families are given partial bits of information, and patients are pressured into signing "do not resuscitate" orders and living wills. ("If you have a living will, tear it up," Mary Therese recommended.) The Helmuellers reported that the actual practice of euthanasia (disguised on death certificates by the use of the phrase "death by natural causes") is about the same percentage as what takes place in the Netherlands. Euthanasia is not legal in either country; but it has become the de facto practice in hospital after hospital, including' Catholic hospitals. Participants prayed the rosary following the conclusion of the question-and-answer period. Tapes of the five talks, including the excellent impromptu presentation made by the Helmuellers, can be obtained from: Keep the Faith, 10 Audrey Pl., Fairfield, NJ 10544. Phone orders (201- 2441990) may also be placed. This article was taken from the March 6, 1997 issue of "The Wanderer," 201 Ohio Street, St. Paul, MN 55107, 612-224-5733. Subscription Price: $35.00 per year; six months $20.00. Copyright (c) 1997 EWTN Online Services. ------------------------------------------------------- Provided courtesy of: Eternal Word Television Network PO Box 3610 Manassas, VA 22110 Voice: 703-791-2576 Fax: 703-791-4250 Web: http://www.ewtn.com Email address: sysop@ewtn.com -------------------------------------------------------