Editing Laogai (section)

== Estimated number of deaths ==
The estimated number of deaths in laogai varies substantially among authors on the subject:

* In 1997, human rights activist and [[Laogai Research Foundation]] creator [[Harry Wu]] put the death toll from 1949 to 1997 at 15 million.<ref name=wudead>{{cite web |last1=Aikman |first1=David |title=The Laogai Archipelago |date=September 29, 1997 |publisher=[[The Weekly Standard]] |url=http://www.laogai.org/comment/arch.htm |archive-date=April 26, 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050426222819/http://www.laogai.org/comment/arch.htm |quote="There are, according to Wu, an estimated 1,100 of these institutions in which prisoners are compelled to work under conditions, essentially, of slave labor. He estimates that over five decades about 50 million Chinese have been through the Laogai. Today Wu estimates the Laogai population at 6-8 million. [.....] Many of them simply perished in the camps, part of a Laogai death toll that by Wu's calculations may have reached 15 million since 1949. Others survived, but remained in legal limbo for the rest of their lives.}}</ref>
* In 1991, political scientist [[Rudolph Rummel]] puts the number of forced labor "[[democide]]s" at 15,720,000, excluding "all those collectivized, ill-fed and clothed peasants who would be worked to death in the fields".<ref name=rummels>[[Rudolph Rummel|Rummel, R. J.]] ''[http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/NOTE2.HTM China’s Bloody Century: Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1900] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190724104631/http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/NOTE2.HTM |date=July 24, 2019 }}'' [[Transaction Publishers]], 1991. {{ISBN|0-88738-417-X}} pp. 214–215</ref>
* In 1997, [[Jean-Louis Margolin]] estimated in ''[[The Black Book of Communism]]'' that 20 million deaths resulted from high mortality rates in laogai.<ref name=Courtois_et.al_1999>{{cite book |editor-link=Stéphane Courtois  |editor-first=Stéphane |editor-last=Courtois |author1-link=Nicolas Werth |first1=Nicolas |last1=Werth |author2-link=Jean-Louis Panné |first2=Jean-Louis |last2=Panné |author3-link=Andrzej Paczkowski |first3=Andrzej |last3=Paczkowski |author4-link=Karel Bartosek |first4=Karel |last4=Bartosek |author5-link=Jean-Louis Margolin |first5=Jean-Louis |last5=Margolin |title=The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression |isbn=978-0-674-07608-2 |date=October 1999 |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H1jsgYCoRioC |page=498 |quote=The laogai was a sort of nonplace, a black hole where the light of Maoism blinded tens of millions of people. As a rough indication, Harry Wu calculates that up to the mid-1980s some 50 million people passed through the system.115 Many died there. According to estimates by Jean-Luc Domenach, there were roughly 10 million detainees each year, which equals 1—2 percent of the overall population. Given that the mortality rate was around 5 percent, some 20 million Chinese must have died during imprisonment, including approximately 4 million in 1959-1962 during the famine caused by the Great Leap Forward (although a return to normal rations took place only in 1964).116 Along with Jean Pasqualini’s extraordinary revelations, two recent studies (those of Wu and Domenach) now yield a better general picture of the least-known of the century’s three great concentration-camp systems. [....] 115. Wu, Laogai, p. 38. 116. Domenach, Chine, p. 242; Pasqualini, Prisoner of Mao, p. 318.}}</ref> Margolin's calculation assume a yearly imprisoned population of 10 million people and a yearly mortality rate of 5%. If camps operated from roughly 1949 to 1980, that yields about 15.5 million dead.
* In 2005, linguist [[Jung Chang]] and historian [[Jon Halliday]] estimated in ''[[Mao: The Unknown Story]]'' that deaths in prisons and labor camps "could well amount to 27 million" during Mao's rule.<ref name=ChangHalliday2005>{{cite book |last1=Chang |first1=Jung |last2=Halliday |first2=Jon |author1-link=Jung Chang |author2-link=Jon Halliday |title=[[Mao: The Unknown Story]] |year=2005 |publisher=Jonathan Cape |location=London |isbn=978-0224071260 |page=338 |quote=Hidden away in these camps, the physically weaker, and the spiritually stronger, were worked to death. Many inmates were executed, while others committed suicide by any means, like diving into a wheat-chopper. In all, during his rule, the number who died in prisons and labour camps could well amount to 27 million.* [....] By the general estimate China's prison and labor camp population was roughly 10 million in any one year under Mao. Descriptions of camp life by inmates, which point to high mortality rates, indicate a probable annual death rate of at least 10 per cent.}}</ref> In 2005, Jin Xiaoding negatively described Chang and Halliday's logic as a "magic formula" that simply multiplies 27 (years of Mao's rule) by 10 million (assumed camp population) by 10% (assumed yearly mortality rate) to obtain 27 million dead, with no discussion of responsibility or other data.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last1=Benton |editor-first1=Gregor |editor-last2=Chun |editor-first2=Lin |year=2010 |url=https://www.routledge.com/Was-Mao-Really-a-Monster-The-Academic-Response-to-Chang-and-Hallidays/Benton-Chun/p/book/9780415493307 |title=Was Mao Really a Monster?: The Academic Response to Chang and Halliday's "Mao: The Unknown Story" |edition=1st |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9780415493307 |page=149 |quote=Twenty-seven million deaths in prisons and labour camps Jung Chang’s second large group of Mao’s peacetime victims is those who died in Chinese government custody. The number is actually produced by magic formula. Mao’s responsibility is not discussed, merely assumed. During Mao’s 27 years of rule, ‘the number who died in prisons and labour camps could well amount to 27 million’ (p. 338). The proof: ‘China’s prison and labour camp population was roughly 10 million in any one year under Mao. Descriptions of camp life by inmates, which point to high mortality rates, indicate a probable annual death rate of at least 10 per cent’ (p. 338 fn.). So 10m × 10% × 27 = 27 million. Jung Chang accuses Mao of killing x = a × b × c number of people, where a = ‘China’s prison and labour camp population’, b = ‘annual death rate’, and c = the years of his rule. She does not explain why a = 10 million. Her justification of b = 10 per cent is based on ‘descriptions of camp life by inmates’. If we applied this magic formula to Deng Xiao-ping’s reign from 1978 to 1989, we get the figure of 12 million deaths, and 14 million for his successor Jiang Ze-min (1990–2003). Jung Chang does not show why Mao was responsible. Apparently she simply blames Mao for every Chinese death of whatever kind.}}</ref> Charlie Hore called this method "guessing".<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Charlie |last1=Hore |title=Mao out of context |journal=International Socialism |volume=2 |page=110 |date=Spring 2006 |url=https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/hore/2006/xx/mao.html |via=[[Marxist Internet Archive]]}}</ref> Chang and Halliday say that inmates were subjected to back-breaking labor in the most hostile wastelands, and that executions and suicides by any means (like diving into a wheat chopper) were commonplace.<ref name=ChangHalliday2005 />