Several hundred angry Iowa State Chinese students criticized former Chinese political prisoner Harry Wu for his ideas about the Chinese communist government.

Many Chinese students spoke out to a crowd of more than 600 against Wu and what he stands for during the speech in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union Tuesday.

“You are a liar and you have no idea what you are talking about,” Chong Wong, a graduate student in biology, said.

At the beginning of the speech, Fusheng Wei, a graduate student in genetics, passed out a sheet of paper entitled “The Truth of Harry Wu,” written in obvious protest of Wu’s presence at ISU.

Fusheng said Wu is not a Chinese activist but a “spy who has revenge against China.”

“He is an American, not a Chinese activist, he is revengeful and greedy,” Fusheng said.

Ryan Bergman, ISU’s President of Students for a Free Tibet, said he was not surprised at the outrage demonstrated by the Chinese students.

“I had a pretty good idea this was going to happen, but I thought he (Wu) handled things very well, ” he said.

Out of the hundred or more Chinese students who stood in protest of Wu’s opinions, only one student dared to take a stand for Wu. Because of the fear he has for his life and the lives of his family members living in China, the student chose not to comment or give his name.

Wu told the Chinese students that he doesn’t need for them to disagree or agree with him, but to act on changing the Laogai system.

“Corruption has totally destroyed the country, but I am not the one in control or who can change it,” he said.

Wu said he wants people to disagree with the forced labor system — not to agree with his opinions.

He said criminals forced to live in Laogai camps should not be “denied human rights.”

“They should have the right to say they don’t like the communists,” he said. “The Chinese government violates the dignity of prisoners.”

Wu, who is known for his criticism of the Chinese government, was arrested in 1960 and held captive for 19 years in 12 different forced labor camps.

Since his release, Wu has continued to speak out against the treatment of the government toward the Chinese people.

Wu is founder and executive director of the Laogai Research Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to documenting the conditions within Chinese Laogai (forced labor) camps.

Wu said he was arrested in 1960 and sent to a Laogai camp “without a paper, without a trial” and with no idea what his sentence was.

While in captivity, Wu endured torture, starvation, a broken back and arm, and was forced to eat snakes and rats.

“There was on several occasions that I can be finished … I weighed 80 pounds and I couldn’t stand on my own feet for four months,” he said.

Wu said when he left the Laogai camp he was 42 years old.

Before leaving, a guard told him to “be careful” and to “wrap his big tail between his legs.”

“I am not free,” he said. “I don’t want to remember all of this nightmare. I don’t want to talk or think about it.”

Wu said he wants people to forget him as a hero. “Forget it, I am not a hero.”

Wu came to the United States in 1985 as a visiting scholar of geology at the University of California, Berkeley.

“When I came here I didn’t have a working permit and only $40 in my pocket.

“I cannot pay rent. I found out an American university library is a very good place to sleep.”

Wu compared the Laogai camp system in China to the German Holocaust.

He said people “do not have a right to forget the people in China being forced to work.”

Wu returned to China in 1995 to take pictures inside the Laogai camps. He said he was arrested but later expelled.

“I went back with my camera to China to tell the people what is happening,” Wu said.

Wu said he has been titled the “number one troublemaker” by the Chinese government.

He said the title is fitting because the title of his most recently published book is, “Troublemaker.”

“I have a determination to make trouble in the communism system. And I hope all Chinese American men feel the same. Chinese communists are the real troubler makers,” he said.

Wu, who said he has been a “rightest” for 22 years, challenged the crowd to take a stand against the Chinese communist government.

He said the Chinese government is like a bird with two wings — the economy and politics.

China is on its way to becoming a military giant which “is not good for the people of the world and of the Chinese,” he said.

“I believe that if the communist government keeps its system the bird will die,” he said.

Wu said the Laogai camps “fundamentally violate human rights.” He said the Laogai is a political way to keep totalitarianism intact within the Chinese government.

“The Laogai is the world’s most extensive labor system that persists. We can condemn a camp Hilter and Stalin committed but we still let the Laogai still exist,” he said.

Wu said the people must not let the Laogai continue because it is the only way the Chinese government can survive.

Wu said he is a human being with the same wishes for a good life that most people wish for.

“I just want to live my life,” he said. “I know how to enjoy the sunshine on the beach. I have a good life now, I believe it.”