CHINESE COMMUNIST CONCENTRATION CAMPS, SZECHUAN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00810A001400600003-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 5, 2009
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: June 18, 1963
• Content Type: REPORT

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/11/05: CIA-RDP80-0081 OA001400600003-7
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION REPORT
This Document contains information affecting the Na-
tional Defense of the United States, within the mean-
ing of Title 18, Sections 793 and 794, of the U.S. Code, as
amended. Its transmission or revelation of Its contents
to or receipt by an unauthorized person to prohibited
by law. The reproduction of this form is prohibited.
CONFIDENTIAL/CONTROL - U. S. OFFICIALS gN:LLY
SECURITY INFORMATION
SUBJECT Chinese Communist Concentration
Camps, Szechuan
REPORT
DATE DISTR. IS June 1953
NO. OF PAGES 2
REQUIREMENT NO. RD
REFERENCES
THE SOURCE EVALUATIONS IN THIS REPORT ARE DEFINITIVE.
THE APPRAISAL OP CONTENT IS TENTATIVE.
(FOR KEY SEE REVERSE)
la Two million people have been imprisoned in conce:a.tratio camps in Szechuan.l
These prisoners include former government officials, down to heads of villages;
for~ter Nationalist military personnel; officials and xembers of the Kuo-
mintang (KMT), the Young China Party, and the Democratic Socialist Party;
former members of elective bodies wider the Nationalist regime down to
municipal and county council level; land owners, wel.lf-to-do? peasants,
and merchants.
2. Seven thousand people are imprisoned in a camp at S'hihpanchiao, Chungking,
and four thousand in. the compound off' the Chenyuan Catholic Church at
Chungking. The latter are employed,at ground levelling in.Huangshan,
which is on the opposite side of the Yangtse river,..from Chungking. The
Nanchiaochang camp at Chlengtu contains over five thousand prisoners and
the Kawanhsien camp near Ch'engtu, over ten thousand; the latter are engaged
in dam construction. Over ten thousand concentration camp prisoners are
working on airfield s.truction at Kantzu (N 31-38, E 99-59), a county in
Sikang; large numbers are employed on the Chlangtu-L1aasa and the Sikang-
Tibet roads.
25X1
3. Concentration camps consist of provincial camps under the provincial
government, county camps under the county administration, and village
group camps under the village administration. Prisoners sentenced to five
years or more are sent to camps in the border areas of Sikang and Tibet.
Thope serving shorter sentences are organized'into provincial, county, or
village labor. battalions to work for 12 hours a day., or longer, at such tasks as
building roads or public granaries, irrigating ditches, and levelling ground.
CONFIDENT, 'tL/CONTROL - U. S. OFFICIALS ONLY
STATE X ARMY x .NAVY AIR J x J FBI AEC
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/11/05: CIA-RDP80-0081 OA001400600003-7
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/11/05: CIA-RDP80-00810A001400600003-7
CONFIDENTIAL/CONTROL ? U.S. OFFICIALS ONLY
4. Prisoners are normally housed in overcrowded cells, with 60 prisoners to a
13 x 10 foot room. No conversation is permitted, and no provision is made
for medical aid. The camps are heavily guarded by armed guards who are
extremely brutal to the prisoners. For example, LI po-shen, a Shan.hai
lawyer - formerly secretary to Dr. SMd Yat -sen, was
an inmate of the Chengyuantang concentration camp in the summer of 1951.
Too ill to take boiled rice, he attempted to get some rice water, was
beaten until he collapsed, and died in his cell the same evening.
1. I Comment. Basis for this statement is unknown..
2. Comment. Li pomshen later became secretary-general to the
provincial government of Szechuan and in 191+8, the first Chief Justice
of Nationalist China.
CONFIDENTIAL/CONTROL - U.S. OFFICIALS ONLY
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2009/11/05: CIA-RDP80-00810A001400600003-7