By: Daniel Nardini
Recently the Chinese government announced that it will abolish the Re-education Through Labor (RTL) system—the system where people can be detained indefinitely without being charged with a crime or ever put on trial. I personally do not believe that the Chinese government will fully get rid of this system of arbitrary detention. What it will do is make some cosmetic changes. Some of these changes may be improvements in of themselves. For one there may be a time limit that those detained will be held without charge. Second, those detained may be given access to counsel or be able to be represented by a lawyer. Finally, they may have some legal protections that currently they do not have now. These changes in of themselves may be significant given the situation where those detained without charge have no rights, no legal representation of any kind, and can be detained indefinitely.
But we must remember these important things. The Chinese Communist Party is still the supreme institution that rules China. This will not change. The legal system is, like everything else, still under their control. Given this, the chances are there will still be tens of thousands of political and religious prisoners even if they have certain “rights” they did not have before. The chances are there will still be a parallel system of prison camps (i.e. slave labor camps) that will run in tandem with the civil court system. For the only real way for the Chinese Communist Party to maintain an absolute monopoly on power will be to hold people against their will for the simple act of dissent. Besides, with the slave labor camp system generating billions of dollars worth of prison slave labor goods, why would the Chinese government want to fully abolish the RTL? According to a well-known China news commentator, Xia Xiaoqiang, the prison labor force is a virtually free wage institution where those imprisoned and forced to work are paid (if paid at all) 150 times lower than the national average throughout China. They are forced to work in degrading and inhuman conditions, and many Communist Party officials are earning huge profits from this imprisoned labor force.
Given all of this, why would the Chinese government want to fully get rid of the Re-education Through Labor system? It is credible that they will make cosmetic changes, but the essential system will most likely stay intact. There is just too much invested in the labor camp system to get rid of it and start from scratch. At the same time, China has developed a civil legal system where those accused of actual crimes (robbery, rape, murder, extortion, kidnapping, assault, and fraud) will find themselves in civil prisons, or in slave labor camps like the political and religious prisoners. But again I personally do not take the word of the Chinese Communist Party since it has been known to tell bold face lies.
A Slave Labor System by Any Other Name
By: Daniel Nardini
But we must remember these important things. The Chinese Communist Party is still the supreme institution that rules China. This will not change. The legal system is, like everything else, still under their control. Given this, the chances are there will still be tens of thousands of political and religious prisoners even if they have certain “rights” they did not have before. The chances are there will still be a parallel system of prison camps (i.e. slave labor camps) that will run in tandem with the civil court system. For the only real way for the Chinese Communist Party to maintain an absolute monopoly on power will be to hold people against their will for the simple act of dissent. Besides, with the slave labor camp system generating billions of dollars worth of prison slave labor goods, why would the Chinese government want to fully abolish the RTL? According to a well-known China news commentator, Xia Xiaoqiang, the prison labor force is a virtually free wage institution where those imprisoned and forced to work are paid (if paid at all) 150 times lower than the national average throughout China. They are forced to work in degrading and inhuman conditions, and many Communist Party officials are earning huge profits from this imprisoned labor force.
Given all of this, why would the Chinese government want to fully get rid of the Re-education Through Labor system? It is credible that they will make cosmetic changes, but the essential system will most likely stay intact. There is just too much invested in the labor camp system to get rid of it and start from scratch. At the same time, China has developed a civil legal system where those accused of actual crimes (robbery, rape, murder, extortion, kidnapping, assault, and fraud) will find themselves in civil prisons, or in slave labor camps like the political and religious prisoners. But again I personally do not take the word of the Chinese Communist Party since it has been known to tell bold face lies.