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HARRY WU is a resident scholar at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University

NPR Reviewed Jul 1, 2026 ✓ Reviewed by citations.press editors
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Harry Wu was held in a prison labor camp for 19 years.
19 years · prison labor camp
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Harry Wu was arrested in 1960.
1960 year · arrest
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Harry Wu was released in 1979.
1979 year · release
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HARRY WU is a resident scholar at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He came to the U.S. from China where he was held in a prison labor camp for 19 years. The son of a wealthy banker, WU was a newly graduated college student when he was arrested in 1960 and denounced as an "enemy of the revolution." In the camps he endured torture, starvation, and he learned to "stop thinking in order to survive." In 1979 he was released. After emigrating to the U.S., WU made a daring trip back to China for the TV show "60 Minutes." Disguising his identity, he and a camera crew went back to the prison labor camp to document abuses there. WU's new memoir is "Bitter Winds: A Memoir of My Years in China's Gulag." (John Wiley & Sons).

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