Comparison of United States incarceration rate with other countries
The incarceration rate of the People's Republic of China varies depending on sources and measures. According to the World Prison Brief, the rate for only sentenced prisoners is 118 per 100,000 (as of 2015). The rate for prisoners including estimations for the number of pre-trial detainees and those in administrative detention is 164 per 100,000 (as of 2015). In a 2010 interview Harry Wu, a U.S.-based human rights activist and ex-Chinese labor camp prisoner, estimates that "in the last 60 years, more than 40–50 million people" were in Chinese labor camps, but that period includes the mass incarcerations of the 1950s or the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) and is not representative of modern China.
Re-education through labor
"China Daily" estimated that there were a total of 310 re-education centers in China in 2007. The 2008 edition the Laogai Research Foundation's biennial report listed exactly 319 "confirmed" re-education centers in China, and 74 "unconfirmed" ones, but estimated that the actual number might be much higher. the provinces with the most centers being Guangdong (31), Heilongjiang (21), and Henan (21). In a February 2009 meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council, the Chinese government stated that there are 320 centers. The provinces with the most re-education centers include Guangdong, Liaoning, Heilongjiang, and Henan. At the end of 2008, there were 350 labor camps in which were held 160,000 prisoners.