List of countries by incarceration rate
China. The rate of 118 is for sentenced prisoners in 2015 in Ministry of Justice prisons only. World Prison Brief: "1,649,804 [prisoners] at mid-2015 (via Asian and Pacific Conference of Correctional Administrators - sentenced prisoners in Ministry of Justice prisons only, excluding pre-trial detainees and those held in administrative detention). The Deputy Procurator-General of the Supreme People's Procuratorate reported in 2009 that, in addition to the sentenced prisoners, more than 650,000 were held in detention centres In China. If this was still correct in mid-2015 the total prison population in China was at least 2,300,000. ... 118 [rate] based on an estimated national population of 1.4 billion at mid-2015 (from United Nations figures) – sentenced prisoners in Ministry of Justice prisons only. (A total prison population of 2,300,000 would raise the prison population rate to 164 per 100,000.)" See also: Re-education through labor and Laogai.
Slavery in the 21st century
In China's system of labour prisons (formerly called laogai), millions of prisoners have been subject to forced, unpaid labour. The laogai system is estimated to currently house between 500,000 and 2 million prisoners, And to have caused tens of millions of deaths. In parallel with laogai, China operated the smaller Re-education through labor system of prisons up until 2013. In addition to both of these, It has been alleged that China is also operating forced labour camps in Xinjiang, imprisoning hundreds of thousands (possibly as many as a million) of muslims, uyghurs and other ethnic minorities and political dissidents.