Harry Wu spent 19 years incarcerated by the Chinese government in the Laogai as a political prisoner. Wu was forced to manufacture chemicals, mine coal, build roads, and plant crops. He survived beatings, torture, and starvation, and witnessed the death of many of his fellow prisoners. After his release in 1979, Wu moved to the United States determined to expose the truth about the Laogai - the most extensive forced labor system in the world. He documented his imprisonment and survival in his book Bitter Winds: A Memoir of My Years in China’s Gulag. He has repeatedly risked his life returning to China to document slavery and human rights abuses.