Book Review: No Wall Too High: One Man’s Extraordinary Escape From Mao’s Infamous Labour Camps by Xu Hongci

Xu Hongci’s story is so cruel and frustrating that it reads like a Hollywood film, but this account is true – the brutality was real.

Hongci spent his early years toeing the line of China’s totalitarian Communist Party, sincerely believing in its politics and approach. But one day he spoke his mind at university and his peers pounced, criticising him for his apparent anti-regime beliefs.

Hongci was imprisoned on trumped-up charges in one of Chairman Mao’s labour camps in April 1958. Over the next 14 years, he worked diligently – as a doctor, metalworker, miner or labourer – at a number of camps.

The work was hard and food was often scarce. Hongci saw people die around him and watched his friends betray him publicly, yet he never lost his resolve.

He tried to escape four times, finally succeeding in 1972, and is thought to be the only person to have done so.

Everything about Hongci’s story, from his childhood to how this book came to be published, is fascinating, but heartbreakingly sad.

Thankfully, he got his happy ending.