The Chinese National People’s Congress has added the “Correctional Law for Illegal Behavior” to their list of laws to be legislated in the next five years. The Beijing News reported that the four-decade-old labor camp system in China is facing important changes. Earlier, Political Consultative members from Guangdong suggested abolishing the labor camp system.

Some believe the Chinese labor camp system foments human rights violations, because it allows police to send citizens to perform forced labor without court trials. The system forced some victims to purposely confess to more serious crimes than they had actually committed so that they could at least have a court trial.

Generally, labor camp inmates are treated more inhumanely than prisoners.

Chinese media reported that the labor camp system was started by “The Decision to Reform Behavior Through Forced Labor” promulgated by the State Council in 1957. The purpose of the system was to change able-bodied lazy people who often commit petty crimes into self-sufficient, reformed citizens through forced labor.

The decision never specified how long forced labor terms would last. In 1979, the State Council stipulated that labor camp terms should be one to three years and if necessary, up to four years. In 1980, the State Council issued a decree to specify that the police should send teams of detainees arrested for petty crimes or undocumented residents to labor camps. In 1982, the Public Security Ministry issued its “Procedures for Managing Labor Camps.” The 9th article of the procedures stipulates, “Rural residents who commit crimes in cities, railroad vicinities, and large mines or factories can be sent to labor camps if they meet the criteria.”

The Beijing News reported that during the 10th National People’s Congress last year, 127 delegates, headed by Duan Weiyi from Sichuan Province and Guo Shengliang from Hubei Province, submitted a proposal, “Improved Legislation of Labor Camp Management in China” and “Legislation to Improve the Current Labor Camp System.” The delegates said that the labor camp rules and regulations are confusing and major problems exist in the system, especially in the eligibility of inmates, procedures of sending them to camps, terms of imprisonment, and camp management. The delegates proposed that the system be reformed to comply with the emerging socialist democratic legal system.

The article quoted a report from the legal subcommittee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), which stated that the labor camp system was established by its 1957 decision. In 1979, the NPC added amendments to the decision. The system has played an important role since its inception in maintaining social order and preventing or reducing crime. There are, however, many issues that need to be resolved in the system.

Last September, several Political Consultative Conference members in Guangdong Province cosponsored a bill to abolish the labor camp system in Guangdong because the system lacks legal underpinning.

It was reported that as large numbers of peasants flooded urban areas, the crime rates in cities have risen and the labor camp system was repeatedly expanded to accommodate the need. Often the authorities abuse the labor camp system. Detainees have frequently been beaten to death. Guo Yunzhong, a whistleblower who reported the corruption of former Hubei Provincial Party boss Cheng Weigao, was sent to a labor camp for three years. Mu Suixin, a corrupt top official in Liaoning Province, also sent whistleblowers to labor camps.

Zhu Zhengfu, law doctor and Guangdong Consultative Conference member, said that the labor camp system, which deprives citizens’ rights without any due legal process, had no reason to exist any longer. He added that the detrimental system should not continue under the cover of a new legally sanctioned procedure, either. Deprivation of citizens’ personal freedom has to go through legal proceedings such as open trials with cross-examinations and appeals. Currently the executive authorities can simply send people to labor camps without any due process.

China has promised to add an article with the phrase “protecting human rights” in a newly revised version of the constitution.