Content note: Crowds of prisoners behind barbed wire under armed guard on a map of China. This object is shown as it was published. Why
世界最大的監獄 (The World's Largest Prison), U.S. map-and-newspaper-clipping poster (catalog title: Red "Bastille")
A line-drawn outline of China filled with rows of faces behind barbed wire, a guard in a long coat and visored cap with fixed bayonet standing across it, and a red burst reading 'The World's Largest Prison'. At lower right sits a boxed newspaper clipping from the Hong Kong paper Wah Kiu Yat Po reporting a new prison in northern Guangdong for 18,000. One local report is put forward as the proof (testimonial) of a whole-country image of confinement (fear-appeal).
- Date
- June 22, 1951
- Period
- Cold War
- Made by
- U.S. Department of State, International Information and Educational Exchange Program (records later held by the U.S. Information Agency)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Truman Administration
- Leader
- Harry S. Truman
- Audience
- Foreign public
- Purpose
- Demonize
- Event
- Cold War
- Techniques
- Fear appealTestimonial
- Source
- Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons (from U.S. National Archives, RG 306, NAID 5730057), retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work; Commons PD-USGov, NARA RG 306)
U.S. Department of State / U.S. Information Agency, 1951. National Archives, Record Group 306 (NAID 5730057, 306-PPA-157).
Text on the object
世界 最大的監獄 華僑日報 WAH KIU YAT PO 中共在粵北 建巨型監獄 可容一萬八千人 （本報曲江特訊）
The world's / largest prison Wah Kiu Yat Po [Overseas Chinese Daily] The Chinese Communists build a giant prison in northern Guangdong / able to hold 18,000 people (Special dispatch from our paper, Qujiang)
Red burst title, clipping masthead, clipping headline and dateline only. The clipping's body text (about eleven vertical columns) is third-party newspaper copy and is not transcribed. Translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader.
