Set up in remote areas with harsh climactic conditions. Inmates subjected to hard physical labour in fields/mines. Principle of 'reform through labour', influenced by gulags in USSR. Many people died of overwork or under-nourishment.
Why set up?
outbreak of Korean War (1950) heightened threat to regime from external enemies - used to justify intensification of repression. Chinese with foreign links targetted.
elimination of internal opposition - political opponents, bandits, religious sect members
3 Antis and 5 Antis campaigns provided victims
Mao's ideology that an individual demonstrated their value through hard labour (reform through labour)
prison population was valuable labour force to open up remote areas to agriculture/mining
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