The Laogai Museum is a small, serious museum in the Dupont Circle area devoted to forced labour and political imprisonment in China. Its exhibits use prisoner artefacts, photographs, and explanatory panels to show how the laogai system worked and how it shaped the lives of dissidents and ordinary prisoners.
It is not a polished Smithsonian-style stop, and that is part of the point. Come if you are interested in human rights history, Chinese politics, or Washington's smaller issue-driven museums.