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A Disappearing Act: the Evolution of China’s Administrative Detention System

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Abstract

This article traces the evolution of reeducation-through-labor (laojiao) as a form of administrative punishment in China in an effort to identify the critical junctures, events, and actors that have produced significant changes in the practice over time. Focusing most of its attention on the abolition of the RTL system announced in the Third Plenum Decision of 2013 and the subsequent use of a range of alternative institutions to house former RTL detainees, it outlines a shift toward more diverse and differentiated means of addressing both political opposition and social problems in China. In making this claim, the article suggests the emergence of a new approach of authoritarian control over the legal system, one capable of handling a wider assortment of offender-types and therefore better-able to protect CCP hegemony.

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Notes

  1. See [1]. It should be noted that under the Administrative Litigation Law, citizens sentenced to RTL had a legal right to ask a People's court to review the legality of this administrative decision, though the extent to which this right was systematically exercised or allowed is unclear.

  2. Congressional Executive Commission on China, “Prospects for Reforming China’s Re-education Through Labour System,” May 9, 2013.

  3. Harry Bradford, “Chinese Labour Camp Worker Sends Plea for Help Inside Cheap Halloween Decorations,” The Huffington Post, December 27, 2012.

  4. Upholding social stability has long been at the heart of administrative detention in China. See [10].

  5. On “Responsive Authoritarianism,” see [11].

  6. Amnesty International, “Changing the Soup But Not the Medicine? Abolishing Re-Education Through Labour in China,” (December, 2013): 7, https://www.amnesty.org.uk/sites/default/files/china_rtl.pdf.

  7. Chinese Communist Party Central Committee, “Guanyu chedi suqing ancang de fangeming fenzi de zhishi” [“Directive on the thorough elimination of hidden counterrevolutionaries”], August 25, 1955.

  8. Chinese Communist Party Central Committee, “Guanyu ge sheng, shi ying liji chouban laodong jiaoyang jigou de zhishi” [“Directive on the immediate establishment of laojiao institutions in provinces and cities”], January 10, 1956).

  9. Ibid.

  10. Ibid.

  11. Hualing, Re-education Through Labour in Historical Perspective,” 814.

  12. Congressional Executive Commission on China, “Prospects for Reforming,” http://www.cecc.gov/publications/issue-papers/prospects-for-reforming-chinas-reeducation-through-labour-system#12a

  13. Yu and Mosher, “The Two Stages of the Re-education Through Labour System,” 67.

  14. State Council, “Guanyu laodong jiaoyang wenti de jueding” [Resolution Regarding the Re-education Through Labour Issue], 1957.

  15. Yu and Mosher, “The Two Stages of the Re-education Through Labour System,” 68.

  16. As cited in Yu And Mosher, 68.

  17. Guowuyuan Guanyu Laodong Jiaoyang De Buchong Jueding [Supplementary Decision of the State Council for Reeducation Through Labour], 1979. It should be noted, however, that stipulations regarding the length of a sentence were initially instituted in 1961.

  18. Guowuyuan Guanyu Zhuanfa Gonganbu Zhiding De Laodong Jiaoyang Shixing Banfa De Tongzhi [Notice of the State Council on Re-Issuing the Ministry of Public Security’s Trial Methods for the Implementation of Reeducation Through Labour], 1982.

  19. Wang Bixue, “The Basic Shape of My Country’s Re-Education-Through-Labor Drug Rehabilitation Model,” [我国劳教戒毒模式基本成型] People’s Daily [人民日报], June 24, 2005.

  20. For a discussion of these mechanisms, see Biddulph, pp. 14–17.

  21. For a discussion of the legal principle and its implications, see [20].

  22. The documents in question are the Supreme People’s Court/Supreme People’s Procuratorate Interpretation on several Questions on the Applicable law on Handling Cases of Theft (Guanyu Banli Daoqie Xingshi Anjian Shiyong Falu Ruogan Wenti de Jieshi) and Interpretation on several Questions on the Applicable law for Handling Criminal Cases of Picking Quarrels and Causing Trouble (Guangyu Banli Xunxin Zishi Xingshi Anjian Shiyong Falu Ruogan Wenti de Jieshi).

  23. Zou, China’s Legal Reform: Towards the Rule of Law, 175.

  24. Fu, “Re-education Through Labour in Historical Perspective,” 821.

  25. [21–23] Amnesty International, “Open Letter to the President of the People’s Republic of China” M2 Presswire, Sept. 28,

  26. For a detailed discussion, see [24].

  27. Chinese Human Rights Defenders, “In the Name of ‘Stability’: 2012 Annual Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in China, March 2013, 17, http://www.chrdnet.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/CHRD-Report-on-Human-Rights-Defenders-2012.pdf

  28. United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, “Annual Report of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom,” April 2013, 38, http://www.uscirf.gov/images/2013%20USCIRF%20Annual%20Report%20(2).pdf

  29. Ibid.

  30. Amnesty International, “Changing the Soup,” 14.

  31. E.g. Chinese Human Rights Defenders, “Re-education through Labour Abuses Continue Unabated: Overhaul Long Overdue,” February 4, 2009; Human Rights Watch, “We Could Disappear at Any Time: Retaliation and Abuses Against Chinese Petitioners,” 17, no. 11 (2005), 58.

  32. Chris Buckley, “China Internal Security Budget Jumps Past Army Spending,” Reuters, March 5, 2011.

  33. Congressional-Executive Commission on China, “Annual Report,” October 10, 2009; Congressional-Executive Commission on China, “Communist Party Calls for Increased Efforts To ‘Transform’ Falun Gong Practitioners as Part of Three-Year Campaign,” March 22, 2011.

  34. Andrew Jacobs, “Opposition to Labour Camps Widens in China,” International New York Times, 14 December 2012.

  35. Jacobs, “Opposition to Labour Camps Widens in China,” 2012.

  36. “China: New Regulation Sees Introduction of Criminal Suspects’ Right to Silence,” Xinhua, Nov. 22, 2000.

  37. Notice of the Ministry of Justice Regarding Studying and Implementing the Important Instructions Given by Comrade Zhu Rongji When He Visited the Guangxi Education House for Drug Addicts,” in Chinese Yearbook of Judicial Administration 1999, 336.

  38. “China Reviews Reeducation Through Labour System,” Deutsche Press-Agenteur, February 5, 2001.

  39. Scott Greene, “Xinhua: China to Reform Labour Re-Education System”, China Digital Times, 8 January 2013, http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/01/xinhua-china-to-reform-labour-re-education-system/

  40. Maya Wang, “Rights group: China may not be ready for labour camp reforms”, CNN International, 16 January 2013, http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/15/opinion/china-labour-camps-human-rights-watch/

  41. Amnesty International, “Changing the Soup,” 34, https://www.amnesty.org.uk/sites/default/files/china_rtl.pdf

  42. “China to abolish re-education through labour” Xinhuanet, 15 November 2013, http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2013-11/15/c_132891921.htm

  43. Ibid.

  44. In fact, sustained calls for reform or abolition of RTL on the grounds of its illegality under Chinese law had existed for a couple of decades. Such arguments typically focused on the failure of RTL to comply with both the PRC Legislation Law and the PLRC Administrative Punishment Law stipulating that punishments involving deprivation of the personal freedom of citizens must be set out in national law (a specific type of legislation), enacted by the NPC or its Standing Committee.

  45. Congressional Executive Commission on China, “Prospects for Reforming,” 9 May 2013.

  46. Lisa Peryman, “New documentaries take on the horrors of China’s labour camp system” Probe International, May 7, 2013.

  47. Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore, “Notes on Camps,” International New York Times, January 22, 2013.

  48. See [28].

  49. Stanley Lubman, “Re-Examining Re-Education Through Labour, Wall Street Journal, September 11, 2012. http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2012/09/11/examining-chinas-re-education-on-labour-camps/. Accessed January 18, 2015; Lilian Lin, “Mother’s Labour-Camp Sentence Sparks Fury” Wall Street Journal, 6 August 2012, http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2012/08/06/mother’s-labour-camp-sentence-sparks-fury/.

  50. Lubman, “Re-Examining Re-Education.”

  51. United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Office, “Human Rights and Democracy: The 2012 Foreign and Commonwealth Office Report – China,” 15 April 2013, http://www.refworld.org/docid/516fb7cf9.html. Accessed January 18, 2015.

  52. Lilian Lin, “Time for Re-Education? Critics Take on China Labour Camp System, Wall Street Journal, 16 August 16, 2012, http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2012/08/16/time-for-re-education-critics-take-on-china-labour-camp-system/. Accessed January 18, 2015.

  53. Jacobs, “Chinese Opposition to Labour Camps.”

  54. David, Bandurski, “Labour re-education system under fire,” China Media Project, 22 November 2012, http://cmp.hku.hk/2012/11/22/29286/. Accessed January 19, 2015.

  55. Abby Lin, “Spotlight on China’s ‘Re-education Through Labour’”, Global Voices, 28 November 2012, http://globalvoicesonline.org/2012/11/28/spotlight-on-chinas-re-education-through-labour/. Accessed January 19, 2015.

  56. Laogai Research Foundation, “About Us,” http://www.laogai.org/about-us#Harry Wu. Accessed April 6, 2016.

  57. Chinese Human Rights Defenders, “Re-education through Labour Abuses Continue Unabated: Overhaul Long Overdue,” February 4, 2009, p. 20

  58. John Delury, “China’s Labours Lost: The End of the Re-Education Through Labour Camps,” Foreign Affairs, November 25, 2013.

  59. Delury, “China’s Labours Lost.”

  60. Shannon Tiezzi, “China’s National Security Commission Holds First Meeting,” The Diplomat, April 16 2014.

  61. Tiezzi, “China’s National Security Commission.”

  62. For two prime examples of such warnings, see “HRIC Law Note: Draft Law on Foreign NGOs Undermines Chinese Civil Society and China’s International Engagement,” http://www.hrichina.org/en/legal-resources/hric-law-note-draft-law-foreign-ngos-undermines-chinese-civil-society-and-chinas, accessed April 12, 2016, and Ian Johnston, “China’s Unstoppable Lawyers: An Interview with Teng Biao,” in New York Review of Books, http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2014/10/19/china-rights-lawyers-teng-biao/, accessed April 12, 2016.

  63. As cited in Amnesty International, “Changing the Soup,” 41.

  64. Amnesty International, “Changing the Soup,” 8.

  65. Ibid.

  66. Human Rights Watch, “China: Secret “Black Jails” Hide Severe Rights Abuses,” November 12, 2009. http://www.hrw.org/news/2009/11/02/china-secret-black-jails-hide-severe-rights-abuses. Accessed January 19, 2015.

  67. Sophie Richardson, “Dispatches: Casting a Light Into China’s Black Jails,” Human Rights Watch, 28 March 28, 2014. http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/03/28/dispatches-casting-light-china-s-black-jails. Accessed January 19, 2015.

  68. Verna Yu, “How China is using criminal detention in place of re-education through labour” South China Morning Post, April 21, 2014.

  69. Dui Hua, “Custody and Education,” http://www.duihuaresearch.org/search/label/arbitrary%20detention; http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2007-06/24/content_6284372.htm

  70. Amnesty International, “Changing the Soup,” 37.

  71. Dui Hua, “Custody and Education.”

  72. Dui Hua, “Legal Education: Arbitrary Detention Doesn’t End with RTL,” April 2, 2013.

  73. Ibid.

  74. Teng Biao, “What is a ‘Legal Education Centre’ in China,” China Change, April 3, 2014.

  75. Ibid.

  76. John Ruwitch, “A jail by another name – China Labour camps now drug detox centres,” Reuters, November 30, 2013.

  77. Human Rights in China, “Dissolving Laojiao,” April 1 2009, http://www.hrichina.org/en/content/3701. Accessed January 18, 2015.

  78. Amnesty International, “Changing the Soup,” 35.

  79. Adam Century, “As Labour Camp Prisoners Are Released, Questions Remain,” New York Times, November 21, 2013.

  80. Ruwitch, “A jail by another name.”

  81. Ruwitch, “A jail by another name.”

  82. Amnesty International, “Changing the Soup,” 35.

  83. For the most comprehensive and ground-breaking research on sex work in China, see [32].

  84. Asia Catalyst, “Custody and Education: Arbitrary Detention for Female Sex Workers in China,” December 8, 2013, 8. http://asiacatalyst.org/blog/AsiaCatalyst_CustodyEducation2013-12-EN.pdf. Accessed January 19, 2015.

  85. Laurie Burkitt and Fanfan Wang “Advocacy Group Calls China to Shut Labour Camps for Sex Workers,” Wall Street Journal, December 10, 2013.

  86. Burkitt and Wang, “Advocacy Group Calls China to Shut Labour Camps for Sex Workers.”

  87. Human Rights Watch, “Swept Away: Abuses Against Sex Workers in China, May 2013, p. 36.

  88. Dui Hua, “Custody and Education Worse than Re-education through Labour?” December 26, 2013, http://www.duihuaresearch.org/search/label/arbitrary%20detention. Accessed January 19, 2015.

  89. Dui Hua, “Custody and Education Worse than Re-education through Labour?”

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Noakes, S. A Disappearing Act: the Evolution of China’s Administrative Detention System. J OF CHIN POLIT SCI 23, 199–216 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11366-016-9433-z

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