Xu Hongci, a young medical student, was sent to Mao Zedong's labor reform camps in 1957. After three failed escape attempts, Xu broke out of a prison near the Burmese border in 1972. He eventually married and settled into a new life, until he was able to return home after Mao's death.
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Mao Zedong's labor reform camps were notoriously brutal; modeled after the Soviet gulag, their inmates were subject to backbreaking labor, malnutrition, and vindictive wardens. They were thought to be impossible to escape—but one man did. Xu ... SEE MORE