The foundation's mission is to "gather information on and raise public awareness of the Laogai—China's extensive system of forced-labor prison camps.

"[1] The Laogai Research Foundation was founded in 1992 by Harry Wu, a former political prisoner in the People's Republic of China.

Born in 1937 to a prosperous Shanghai family, Wu fell afoul of the Chinese Communist Party while in college and was deemed a counter-revolutionary rightist during the Anti-Rightist Movement.

He emigrated to the United States in 1982 and began to publicize the systematic human rights abuses inflicted upon the Chinese people by the CCP.

[13] In April 2011, the LRF celebrated the grand opening of its fully renovated Laogai Museum at its new location in Dupont Circle.