What is the incarceration rate in China?
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.
United States
The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate and largest prison population in the world. At the start of 2008, more than 2.3 million people were incarcerated, more than one in every 100 adults. In December 2012, the combined U.S. adult correctional systems supervised about 6,937,600 offenders. About 1 in every 35 adult residents in the United States was under some form of correctional supervision in December 2012, the lowest rate observed since 1997. The prison population has quadrupled since 1980, and state and local spending on prisons and jails has grown three times as much as that spent on public education during the same period. However, the imprisonment rate for all prisoners sentenced to more than a year in state or federal facilities is 478 per 100,000 in 2013 and the rate for pre-trial/remand prisoners is 153 per 100,000 residents in 2012. The country's high rate of incarceration is largely due to changes in sentencing guidelines and drug policies. According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the majority of inmates held in federal prisons are convicted of drug offenses. The privatization of prisons and prison services which began in the 1980s has been a subject of debate. In 2018, Oklahoma had the highest incarceration rate (1,079 per 100,000 people), and Massachusetts the lowest (324 per 100,000 people). Among the U.S. territories, the highest incarceration rate was in the U.S. Virgin Islands (542 per 100,000 people) and the lowest was in Puerto Rico (313 per 100,000 people).
Crime in China
China has a high rate of domestic violence. In 2004, the All-China Women’s Federation compiled survey results to show that thirty percent of the women in China experienced domestic violence within their homes.
Crime in China
The PRC is a one-party state ruled by the Communist Party of China, Corruption exists in China.The cost thereof to the economy is significant. Between 1978 and 2003, an estimated $50 billion was smuggled out of the country by corrupt officials.
Dui Hua Foundation
Dui Hua actively promotes reform in the area of women prisoners in China. The organization held an expert-led seminar in Hong Kong on the Bangkok Rules (Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders) in February 2014. In 2016, Dui Hua partnered with Penal Reform International and translated into Chinese an e-course on sections of Bangkok Rules . Dui Hua also exposes the plight of incarcerated women in China through its research and publications. In February 2016, the foundation published an investigative piece based on extensive and ongoing research on the ever-rising number of women in Chinese prisons. The findings not only indicate a rise in the women prison population but also show that women are being incarcerated in China at a rate ten times the rate of men.
United States incarceration rate
According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, 77.6% of Federal inmates are U.S. citizens (as of April 2016). 15.2% are citizens of Mexico, and the next three countries—Colombia, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic, contribute less than 1% each. 4.9% have other or unknown citizenship. The Bureau did not state how many had come to the U.S. legally.
United States incarceration rate
According to a U.S. Department of Justice report published in 2006, over 7.2 million people were at that time in prison, on probation, or on parole (released from prison with restrictions). That means roughly 1 in every 32 adult Americans are under some sort of criminal justice system control.
List of countries by incarceration rate
This is a list of countries by incarceration rate.
Kidnapping in China
In Guangdong, during the year 1994, the "economic crimes" topped the list of criminal cases, about 46 debt related hosted cases were acknowledged and investigated by the authorities. The chief procurator, Wang Jun had noted that at least 171 hostages involved in debt-related incidents had been freed by the authorities of Guangdong.
Cheng Jianping
The Chinese government's response brought attention to the risks of using Twitter for controversial political issues, as well as criticism from human rights and open technology groups. “Sentencing someone to a year in a labor camp, without trial, for simply repeating another person’s clearly satirical observation on Twitter demonstrates the level of China’s repression of online expression,” said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International’s Director for the Asia-Pacific. The organization further commented, "Cheng may be the first Chinese citizen to become a prisoner of conscience on the basis of a single tweet." Twitter CEO Dick Costolo posted to his Twitter account, "Dear Chinese Government, year-long detentions for sending a sarcastic tweet are neither the way forward nor the future of your great people."
Bengbu Prison
Bengbu Prison is a prison in Bengbu, Anhui, China. It was established in 1958. The prison houses severe criminals and on average holds roughly 2,000 inmates. The prison enterprise mainly deals with the processing and production of rubber hoses.
Penal system in China
Hard labor still was the most common form of punishment in China in the 1980s. The penal system stressed reform rather than retribution, and it was expected that productive labor would reduce the penal institutions' cost to society. Even death sentences could be stayed by two-year reprieve. If a prisoner was judged to have reformed during that period, his or her sentence could be commuted to life or a fixed term at labor. The Prison Law of the People's Republic of China was enacted December 20, 1994. Since then the Chinese prison system has operated under supervision of the Bureau of Prison Administration which falls under the Ministry of Justice . All these divisions of government are controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. The head of the prison administration is Liu Zhenyu, his official title is Director-General. The prisons in the provinces are then further managed by local offices of justice. The Ministry of Justice states that it holds prisoners in over 700 establishments across the country. There are also thirty extra penitentiaries for juveniles. The corrections system in China has an official population of 1,649,804 inmates (mid-2015), including pre-trial detainees . The prison population rate is 118 per 100,000 people. Female offenders make up 6.5% of the total prison population and 0.4% of prisoners in China are of foreign nationality. In general, the prison population rate is going down in China. In 2008, the prison population rate in China peaked with a rate of 121. There was a plateau created in 2010 as the prison population rate remained the same . Some issues against human rights that prisoners experience are, “…executions without due process, illegal detentions at unofficial holding facilities known as “black jails,” torture and coerced confessions of prisoners…” . There is a laundry list of issues presented on the U.S State Department’s Humanities report for 2016. These include but are not limited to failure to protect refugees, extrajudicial disappearances of citizens, and discrimination against women and minorities .
The Criminal Law that took effect on January 1, 1980, removed criminal punishment from the discretion of officials, whose arbitrary decisions were based on perceptions of the current party line, and established it on a legal basis. The specific provisions of that law listed eight categories of offenses.
Economic history of China (1949–present)
According to the 2013 Corruption Perception Index, compiled by global coalition Transparency International, China is ranked 80 out of 177 countries, with a score of 40. The Index scores countries on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very low corruption) and over half of the nations in the Asia Pacific region emerged with a score lower than 40. Transparency International stated in its final assessment:
If genuine efforts are to be made, the present efforts of the Chinese government should go beyond observing the rule of law. They should embrace political reforms that would allow checks and balances, transparency and independent scrutiny together with acknowledging the role that the civil society can play in countering corruption.
Capital punishment in China
Chinese courts hand down the sentence of "death sentence with two years' probation" () as frequently as, or more often than, they do actual death sentences. This unique sentence is used to emphasize the seriousness of the crime and the mercy of the court, and has a centuries-old history in Chinese jurisprudence. It almost always reduced to life or 10 to 15 years imprisonment if no new crime is intentionally committed during the two year probationary period.
2015–16 Chinese stock market turbulence
According to 19 January 2016 articles in the Xinhua News Agency, the official press agency of the People's Republic of China, China reported a 6.9 percent GDP growth rate for 2015 and an "economic volume of over ten trillion U.S. dollars". Forbes journalist argues that the "stock market crash does not indicate a blowout of the Chinese physical economy." China is shifting from a focus on manufacturing to service industries and while it has slowed down, it is still growing by 5%. After this last turbulence, as of January 2017 the Shanghai Composite Index has been stable around 3,000 points, 50% less than before the bubble popped.
Comparison of United States incarceration rate with other countries
A major contributor to the high incarceration rates is the length of the prison sentences in the United States. One of the criticisms of the United States system is that it has much longer sentences than any other part of the world. The typical mandatory sentence for a first-time drug offense in federal court is five or ten years, compared to other developed countries around the world where a first time offense would warrant at most 6 months in jail. Mandatory sentencing prohibits judges from using their discretion and forces them to place longer sentences on nonviolent offenses than they normally would do.
Comparison of United States incarceration rate with other countries
In the United States, women make up more than one tenth of the whole prison population. In most countries, the proportion of female inmates to the larger population is closer to one in twenty. Australia is the exception where the rate of female imprisonment increased from 9.2 percent in 1991 to 15.3 percent in 1999.
Mahmoud Abu Zeid
Egypt was in 2015 among the top ten countries of world in the imprisonment of journalists with 12. Shawkan is being held in Egypt's Tora Prison. As of end of 2015, China had the largest number of imprisoned journalists for the past two years with the number of 49 journalists.
Capital punishment in China
By the confirmed numbers, the rate of executions in China is higher than the United States and Pakistan, though Iran executes more prisoners per capita. The number of executions has dropped significantly since the Supreme People’s Court regained the power to review all death sentences in 2007; for instance, the Dui Hua Foundation estimates that China executed 12,000 people in 2002, 6,500 people in 2007, and roughly 2,400 in 2013 and 2014. Given conservative and variable estimates of executions in China, executions in China account for more than 58% in 2009 and 65% in 2010 of those worldwide.
List of countries by incarceration rate
United States. Incarceration rate (per 100,000 population of all ages) is for inmates held in adult facilities in the United States. It does not include inmates in the custody of correctional facilities operated by departments of corrections in U.S. territories (American Samoa, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands) and U.S. commonwealths (Northern Mariana Islands and Puerto Rico).
List of countries by cremation rate
China cremates more people each year than any other country, reporting 4,534,000 cremations out of 9,348,453 deaths (a 48.50% rate) in 2008. The cremation rate was 45.6% for 2014 according to Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs.
Censorship in China
Reporters Without Borders ranks China's press situation as "very serious", the worst ranking on their five-point scale. In August 2012, the OpenNet Initiative classified Internet censorship in China as "pervasive" in the political and conflict/security areas and "substantial" in the social and Internet tools areas, the two most extensive classifications of the five they use. Freedom House, a US backed NGO, ranks the press there as "not free", the worst ranking, saying that "state control over the news media in China is achieved through a complex combination of party monitoring of news content, legal restrictions on journalists, and financial incentives for self-censorship," and an increasing practice of "cyber-disappearance" of material written by or about activist bloggers.
Incarceration in the United States
Incarceration in the United States is one of the main forms of punishment and rehabilitation for the commission of felony and other offenses. The United States has the largest prison population in the world, and the highest per-capita incarceration rate. In 2016 in the US, there were 655 people incarcerated per 100,000 population. This is the US incarceration rate for adults or people tried as adults. In 2018 2.2 million Americans have been incarcerated, which means for every 100,000 there are 655 that are currently inmates. This costs the United States government $80 billion dollars a year.
Central Institute for Correctional Police
The Central Institute for Correctional Police (Chinese: 中央司法警官学院 Zhōngyāng sīfǎ jǐngguān xuéyuàn) is located in Baoding, Hebei, China, at the heart of Beijing-Tianjin-Shijiazhuang triangle area. It is 130 kilometers from the capital of China.
Human rights in China
The death penalty in mainland China is officially administered only to offenders of serious and violent crimes, such as aggravated murder, but China retains in law a number of nonviolent death penalty offences such as drug trafficking. The People's Republic of China administers more official death penalties than any other country, though other countries (such as Iran and Singapore) have higher official execution rates. Reliable NGOs such as Amnesty International and Human Rights in China have informed the public that the total execution numbers, with unofficial death penalties included, greatly exceed officially recorded executions; in 2009, the Dui Hua Foundation estimated that 5,000 people were executed in China – far more than all other nations combined. The precise number of executions is regarded as a state secret.
High-speed rail in China
On one hand, the demand of high-speed rail in China steadily increases over time. In 2012, the average occupancy rate of high-speed rails in China is 57%. This percentage increases to 65%, 69.4% and 72.1% in the year of 2013, 2014 and 2015, respectively. Up to February 2016, high-speed rails covers nearly 200 thousand kilometers. On the other hand, however, public concerns and questions about the high-speed rail development from various perspectives have been raised as well.
Comparison of United States incarceration rate with other countries
Comparing other countries with similar percentages of immigrants, Germany has a rate of 78 per 100,000 (as of 2017), Italy is 96 per 100,000 (as of 2018), and Saudi Arabia is 197 per 100,000 (as of 2017). Comparing other countries with a zero tolerance policy for illegal drugs, the rate of Russia is 411 per 100,000 (as of 2018), Kazakhstan is 194 per 100,000 (as of 2018), Singapore is 201 per 100,000 (as of 2017), and Sweden is 57 per 100,000 (as of 2016).
Comparison of United States incarceration rate with other countries
Total US incarceration (prisons and jails) peaked in 2008. On January 1, 2008 more than 1 in 100 adults in the United States were in prison or jail. Total correctional population (prison, jail, probation, parole) peaked in 2007. If all prisoners are counted (including juvenile, territorial, ICE, Indian country, and military), then in 2008 the USA had around 24.7% of the world's 9.8 million prisoners.
Human rights in China
Human rights groups and foreign governments have heavily criticised China's use of the death penalty for a variety of reasons, including its application for non-violent offences, allegations of the use of torture to extract confessions, legal proceedings that do not meet international standards, and the government's failure to publish statistics on the death penalty. However, as acknowledged by both the Chinese Supreme Court and the United States Department of State, the vast majority of death sentences are given for violent, nonpolitical crimes which would be considered serious in other countries.
Incarceration in the United States
With around 100 prisoners per 100,000, the United States had an average prison and jail population until 1980. Afterwards it drifted apart considerably. The United States has the highest prison and jail population (2,121,600 in adult facilities in 2016), and the highest incarceration rate in the world (655 per 100,000 population in 2016). According to the World Prison Population List (11th edition) there were around 10.35 million people in penal institutions worldwide in 2015. The US had 2,173,800 prisoners in adult facilities in 2015. That means the US held 21.0% of the world's prisoners in 2015, even though the US represented only around 4.4 percent of the world's population in 2015,
Human rights in Asia
In China being such a significant economic and political power on the international stage, naturally their human rights record has been called into question by the international community and numerous non-governmental organizations. China has historically been harsh upon its critics and this trend has continued in recent history, seeing enforced disappearances remain a widespread occurrence across China. China has also held the title for the most annual executions in recent years; while official statistics remain state secrets, China still has 46 crimes punishable by death. The Chinese government has claimed that the number of executions has fallen by 60%, seeing only a few thousand executed every year, but there is no credible way to verify these statistics. General living conditions have improved in recent years, with China successfully lifting millions of people out of poverty and allowing them to meet their basic needs. Women's rights remain somewhat basic in China but the international community has pushed the Chinese government to adopt improved rights, especially regarding women's rights within the Chinese judiciary system which as of 2013, was slated on the Chinese legislative agenda for the first time as point of discussion. China also received international praise regarding their relative 'hands-off' approach to their autonomous regions (i.e. Xinjiang). While there has historically been suspicion of torture in China, the general attitude towards torture has shifted in recent years; the Chinese government now openly opposes torture and punishes those who partake in it. Regarding the suspicion of torture carried out by the government itself, there have been no official admissions of torture in recent years but the international community has continued to pressure China to adopt various anti-torture laws and ensure that confessions obtained via torture are not considered admissible in the judiciary system.
New Normal (business)
Since 2012, China's economy has shown a marked slowdown, with growth rates declining from double digit levels (before the 2007-2009 financial crisis) to around 7% in 2014. In 2014, a statement by Xi Jinping - General Secretary of the Communist Party of China - indicated that China was entering a 'new normal' (). This term was subsequently popularised by the press and came to refer to expectations of 7% growth rates in China for the foreseeable future. It was indicative of the Chinese government's anticipation of moderate but perhaps more stable economic growth in the medium-to-long term.
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.
Prisoner Law
Incarceration rates in the United States have and continue to increase significantly. In comparison to the rest of the world, the United States holds a record for the highest number of incarcerated individuals. In 2015, the prison population estimated approximately 2.2 million people. There has been a rapid increase in the prison population since the 1980s. However, violent crime has significantly decreased from the years 1973 to 2003. In the United States, the majority of inmates are people of color and from low socioeconomic backgrounds.
United States incarceration rate
The imprisonment rate varies widely by state; Louisiana surpasses this by about 100%, but Maine incarcerates at about a fifth this rate. A report released 28 February 2008, indicates that more than 1 in 100 adults in the United States are in prison.
Capital punishment in China
Amnesty International reports that until 2010 among 197 nations worldwide, 96 nations had completely abolished the death penalty, 9 had abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes, and 34 were abolitionist in practice, meaning that they have not executed anyone for at least 10 years and have generally settled on the policy to not sentence any executions. The last wave of international death penalty abolition has been influenced by the process of democratization and has inspired constitutions that protect the right to live. China has ratified more than 200 international covenants in recent decades and has taken on international responsibilities like respecting the right to life and thus limiting the use of capital punishment. When a draft of the Amendment was punished in 2010, a foreign reporter commented, "it is believed that the proposed amendment is one of several moves by the Chinese government to soften its image as the world's biggest executioner."
United States incarceration rate
The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world, at 754 per 100,000 (). As of December 31, 2010, the International Centre for Prison Studies (ICPS) at King's College London estimated 2,266,832 prisoners from a total population of 310.64 million as of this date (730 per 100,000 in 2010).
Incarceration in the United States
According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) in 2013 black males accounted for 37% of the total male prison population, white males 32%, and Hispanic males 22%. White females comprised 49% of the prison population in comparison to black females who accounted for 22% of the female population. The imprisonment rate for black females (113 per 100,000) was 2x the rate for white females (51 per 100,000. Out of all ethnic groups, African Americans, Puerto Rican Americans, and Native Americans have some of the highest rates of incarceration. Though, of these groups, the black population is the largest, and therefore make up a large portion of those incarcerated in US prisons and jails.
Domestic violence in China
With respect to children, domestic violence in China is a largely ignored issue due to the nebulous distinction between discipline and child abuse. Although a more common sentiment prior to the 1980s, the saying "beating is caring and scolding is intimacy" still holds traction for some families. A study of Hong Kong minors in May 1998 found that 52.9% of Chinese families experienced instances of minor violence (throwing objects, pushing, slapping) against children, and 46.1% of Chinese families experienced instances of severe violence (kicking, punching, threatening or beating with a weapon). A 2001 survey by the China Law Society corroborated these results, finding that 71.9% of the 3543 people surveyed had been beaten by their parents when they were children.
Suicide in China
In China, more women than men die by suicide each year. According to official government statistics: in 1999, the suicide rate per 100,000 people was 13.0 for men and 14.8 for women, the second highest female suicide rate in the world. Bangladesh is also among the few countries where the female rate is higher than the male rate. According to official PRC government statistics, the Chinese male rate (13.0 per 100,000 men per year) is lower than in many other countries, including some Western countries, such as the United States, Australia, and Germany.
Extradition law in China
China currently grants extradition to both states which maintains extradition treaties with and states which assure reciprocity. Extradition from China can be sought if: (1) the conduct indicated in the request for extradition constitutes an offense according to the laws of both China and the Requesting State and (2) the request for extradition is made for the purpose of instituting criminal proceedings, the offence indicated in the request for extradition is, under the laws of both China and the Requesting State, punishable by a fixed term of imprisonment for one year or more or by any other heavier criminal penalty. Additionally, provision (2) grants states the ability to request extradition when persons already been convicted, but have a remaining sentence of at least six months at the time of the request.
Capital punishment in China
Because of the inaccessibility to official statistics of the number of executions that occur within the death penalty system, academic researchers must use data compiled by NGOs such as Amnesty International, which is the most cited source of reports regarding rates of execution statistics. In 2009, Amnesty International counted 1718 executions as having taken place during 2008 (which equates to 0.0001%, or 1 in 1,000,000 of the Chinese population), based on all information available. Amnesty International believed that the total figure was likely to be much higher. According to "The Death Penalty in China: Reforms and Its Future", "it also represents the most conservative estimate of death sentences and executions in China due to the following accounting rules: 1) when there is doubt of accuracy, figures were excluded; 2) where two conflicting reports existed, the lower figure was used; 3) when a combined figure of death sentences and prison sentences was given, only one death sentence was recorded; and 4) when a group was sentenced to death, only one sentence was entered."
Anti-corruption campaign under Xi Jinping
Investigations by the party's disciplinary bodies are not part of the state judicial system. When an official is detained for an investigation, known as "Shuanggui", they are essentially placed under house arrest and are isolated from the outside world. The subject often must endure days of grueling interrogation. Data from the first half of 2014 showed that the conviction rate of those who were investigated in that time period to be around 99%. The CCDI and its local counterparts usually gather evidence covertly well in advance of detaining the subject. Generally, when an official is announced to be under investigation, the CCDI has already collected an overwhelming amount of hard evidence. China scholar Willy Lam also wrote that the CCDI has seen a massive expansion of its powers since Xi's ascension, and that it was increasingly involved in the governance of the state. Lam also contended that the CCDI seemed to be deriving most of its power from Xi Jinping personally.
List of countries by incarceration rate
With a prison population of 42,000 and a total 2018 population of 25 million, Australia has an incarceration rate of 171 per 100,000 population, or 222 per 100,000 adult population.
Law enforcement in China
Citizens have a constitutional guarantee of the right to use their own spoken and written language in court proceedings. Courts and procuratorates are advised by the constitution that they "should provide translations for any party to the court proceedings who is not familiar with the spoken or written languages in common use in the locality." The constitution provides for an independent judiciary, but the courts are subjected to party and government policy guidance that influences the outcome of verdicts and sentences. Conviction rates in criminal cases in the early 2000s were approximately 90 percent, and trials generally were little more than sentencing hearings. Although most suspects in criminal cases are legally guaranteed the right to counsel, they often meet their appointed attorney only once before the hearing; at best, a defense attorney can obtain a reduction of the sentence. In many politically sensitive trials, rarely lasting more than several hours, the courts hand down guilty verdicts immediately following proceedings, and death sentences are often implemented within days of the rejection of an appeal.
Capital punishment in China
If the lower court death sentence is upheld, the execution is carried out shortly thereafter. As a result of its reforms, the PRC's government claims, the Supreme People's Court overturned about 15 percent of the death sentences handed down by high courts in the first half of 2008. In a brief report in May, Xinhua quoted anonymous sources as saying Chinese courts handed down 30 percent fewer death sentences in 2007 compared with 2006.
Prisons by country
China's prison population is estimated at about 2 million.
Internalized racism
The case of China is of interest because some have argued that racism, and race itself doesn't exist in China. However, Dutch Historian Frank Dikötter argues that everything from the practice of using cranium weight between races as a measure of white and Chinese superiority to the physical attacks and demonstrations of Chinese university students against African students make it clear that race is indeed recognized in China. Indeed the context of race and racism in China is heavily affected by the fact that the large majority of the county is identified as Han Chinese (90.56% of the reported population in 2005). 55 minority ethnic groups are recognized by the government, giving the government the power to dictate different groups as legitimate (and therefore eligible for less taxes, more subsidies and less restrictions) or illegitimate. This creates an environments in which groups attempt to gain their validation and sense of worth from the dominant Han Chinese and the state, internalizing a subordinate position. Because this system involves policing of social groups, it also involves discriminatory practices which are then internalized by both recognized and unrecognized minority groups.
Financial repression
Financial repression "played an important role in reducing debt-to-GDP ratios after World War II" by keeping real interest rates for government debt below 1% for two-thirds of the time between 1945 and 1980, the United States was able to "inflate away" the large debt (122% of GDP) left over from the Great Depression and World War II. In the UK, government debt declined from 216% of GDP in 1945 to 138% ten years later in 1955.
China's economic growth has been attributed to financial repression thanks to "low returns on savings and the cheap loans that it makes possible". This has allowed China to rely on savings-financed investments for economic growth. However, because low returns also dampens consumer spending, household expenditures account for "a smaller share of GDP in China than in any other major economy". However, as of December 2014, the People’s Bank of China "started to undo decades of financial repression" and the government now allows Chinese savers to collect up to a 3.3% return on one-year deposits. At China's 1.6% inflation rate, this is a "high real-interest rate compared to other major economies”.
Liangxiang Prison
Liangxiang Prison is a prison in the municipality of Beijing, China. It was established in 1960. The prison was once the largest elevator factory in China. It currently houses over 1,000 adult male criminals with 10-15 yr. sentences.
Incarceration of women in the United States
This article discusses the incarceration of women in prisons and jails within the United States. According to a November 2017 report by the World Prison Brief, around 212,000 of the 714,000 female prisoners worldwide (women and girls) are incarcerated in the United States. That report states: "The highest female prison population rates are in the U.S.A. (about 65.7 per 100,000 of the national population), Thailand (60.7), El Salvador (58.4), Turkmenistan (about 38.2), Seychelles (34.8), Russian Federation (33.5), French Guiana (32.4), Macau-China (31.3), Rwanda (29.6), Greenland (28.5) and American Samoa (27.3)."
Human rights in China
Critics argue that the CPC has failed to live up to its promises about the freedom of the mainland Chinese media. Freedom House consistently ranks China as 'Not Free' in its annual press freedom survey, including the 2014 report. PRC journalist He Qinglian says that the PRC's media are controlled by directives from the Communist Party's propaganda department, and are subjected to intense monitoring which threatens punishment for violators, rather than to pre-publication censorship. In 2008, ITV News reporter John Ray was arrested while covering a 'Free Tibet' protest. International media coverage of Tibetan protests only a few months before the Beijing Olympics in 2008 triggered a strong reaction inside China. Chinese media practitioners took the opportunity to argue with propaganda authorities for more media freedom: one journalist asked, 'If not even Chinese journalists are allowed to report about the problems in Tibet, how can foreign journalists know about the Chinese perspective about the events?' Foreign journalists also reported that their access to certain websites, including those of human rights organizations, was restricted. International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge stated at the end of the 2008 Olympic Games that 'The regulations [governing foreign media freedom during the Olympics] might not be perfect but they are a sea-change compared to the situation before. We hope that they will continue.' The Foreign Correspondents Club of China (FCCC) issued a statement during the Olympics that 'despite welcome progress in terms of accessibility and the number of press conferences within the Olympic facilities, the FCCC has been alarmed at the use of violence, intimidation and harassment outside. The club has confirmed more than 30 cases of reporting interference since the formal opening of the Olympic media centre on 25 July, and is checking at least 20 other reported incidents.'
Human rights in China
The number of political prisoners peaked during the Mao era and has been decreasing since then. From 1953 to 1975, around 26 to 39 percent of prisoners were incarcerated for political reasons. By 1980, the percentage of prisoners incarcerated for political reasons was only 13 percent, and this figure decreased to 0.5 percent in 1989 and 0.46 percent in 1997. 1997 is also the year that the Chinese Criminal Law was amended to replace counterrevolutionary crime with crimes endangering national security.
Penal system in China
China executed more than four times as many convicts as the rest of the world combined in 2005, Amnesty International estimated there were at least 1,770 executions in China that year, and most of them were still by firing squad.
List of U.S. states by incarceration and correctional supervision rate
Comparing other English-speaking developed countries, whereas the incarceration rate in the US is 660 per 100,000 population of all ages (as of 2016 table above), the incarceration rate of Canada is 114 per 100,000 (as of 2015), England and Wales is 146 per 100,000 (as of 2016), and Australia is 160 per 100,000 (as of 2016). Comparing other developed countries, the rate of Spain is 133 per 100,000 (as of 2016), France is 110 per 100,000 (as of 2016), Germany is 76 per 100,000 (as of 2016), Norway is 73 per 100,000 (as of 2016), Netherlands is 69 per 100,000 (as of 2014), and Japan is 48 per 100,000 (as of 2014).
Incarceration in the United States
Comparing other English-speaking developed countries, whereas the incarceration rate of the US is 655 per 100,000 population of all ages, the incarceration rate of Canada is 114 per 100,000 (as of 2015), England and Wales is 146 per 100,000 (as of 2016), and Australia is 160 per 100,000 (as of 2016). Comparing other developed countries, the rate of Spain is 133 per 100,000 (as of 2016), Greece is 89 per 100,000 (as of 2016), Norway is 73 per 100,000 (as of 2016), Netherlands is 69 per 100,000 (as of 2014), and Japan is 48 per 100,000 (as of 2014).
Human rights in China
The Chinese government has a history of imprisoning citizens for political reasons. Article 73 of China’s Criminal Procedure Law was adopted in 2012 and allow the authorities to detain people for reasons of “state security” or “terrorism.” In this regard Detainees can be held for as long as six months in “designated locations” such as secret prisons.
United States incarceration rate
Comparing some countries with similar percentages of immigrants, Germany has an incarceration rate of 76 per 100,000 population (as of 2014), Italy is 85 per 100,000 (as of 2015), and Saudi Arabia is 161 per 100,000 (as of 2013). Comparing other countries with a zero tolerance policy for illegal drugs, the rate of Russia is 455 per 100,000 (as of 2015), Kazakhstan is 275 per 100,000 (as of 2015), Singapore is 220 per 100,000 (as of 2014), and Sweden is 60 per 100,000 (as of 2014).
Human rights in China
Human rights in China is a highly contested topic, especially for the fundamental human rights periodically reviewed by the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC),[1] on which the government of the People's Republic of China and various foreign governments and human rights organizations have often disagreed. PRC authorities, their supporters, and other proponents claim that existing policies and enforcement measures are sufficient to guard against human rights abuses. However other countries and their authorities (such as the United States Department of State, Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, among others), international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), such as Human Rights in China and Amnesty International, and citizens, lawyers, and dissidents inside the country, state that the authorities in mainland China regularly sanction or organize such abuses. Jiang Tianyong, 46, is the latest lawyer known for defending government critics to be jailed. According to the news over the past two years more than 200 have been detained in the ongoing crackdown on criticism in China.[2]
Rape in China
The 2013 "Multi-country Study on Men and Domestic Violence" asked men in China if they had ever coerced a female partner into having sex (including alcohol facilitated rape). 22.2% said yes. 9.3% had done so in the past year. 19.4% raped their partner. 55% of the men who had raped had done so more than once and 9% had have so on four or more partners. 86% cited sexual entitlement as their motive (the highest percentage in the study) and 57% answered that they raped out of boredom. 72.4% experienced no legal consequences. 1.7% had raped another man. 25.1% who had raped reported first doing so as a teenager. 2.2% admitted to having committed gang rape. A report conducted by the All-China Women’s federation estimated that close to forty percent of Chinese woman who are involved in a relationship or are married experience physical or sexual violence.
Censorship in China
Censorship in the People's Republic of China (PRC) is implemented or mandated by the PRC's ruling party, the Communist Party of China (CPC). The government censors content for mainly political reasons, but also to maintain its control over the populace. The Chinese government asserts that it has the legal right to control the internet's content within their territory and that their censorship rules do not infringe on the citizen's right to free speech. Since Xi Jinping became the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China ("de facto" paramount leader) in 2012, censorship has been "significantly stepped up".
Mihrigul Tursun
November 28, 2018, Mihrigul Tursun, speaking through a translator, testified before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China about her harrowing experience over a series of three internments. She said that: There were around 60 people kept in a 430 square feet cell so at nights, 10 to 15 women would stand up while the rest of us would sleep on sideways so we could fit, and then we would rotate every 2 hours. There were people who had not taken a shower over a year.
Responding to a CNN report, China's Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying vehemently rejected Mihrigul's allegations and gave a detailed account of the events. According to Hua, Mihrigul was taken into custody by Qiemo County police for 20 days from April 21 to May 20, 2017 on suspicion of inciting ethnic hatred and discrimination, but she was never jailed or put in vocational education and training center. Apart from those 20 days, she was totally free during her stay in China and traveled abroad extensively.
United States incarceration rate
A substantial body of research claims that incarceration rates are primarily a function of media editorial policies, largely unrelated to the actual crime rate. "Constructing Crime: Perspectives on Making News and Social Problems" is a book collecting together papers on this theme. The researchers say that the jump in incarceration rate from 0.1% to 0.5% of the United States population from 1975 to 2000 (documented in the figure above) was driven by changes in the editorial policies of the mainstream commercial media and is unrelated to any actual changes in crime. Media consolidation reduced competition on content. That allowed media company executives to maintain substantially the same audience while slashing budgets for investigative journalism and filling the space from the police blotter, which tended to increase and stabilize advertising revenue. It is safer, easier and cheaper to write about crimes committed by poor people than the wealthy. Poor people can be libeled with impunity, but major advertisers can materially impact the profitability of a commercial media organization by reducing their purchases of advertising space with that organization.
United States incarceration rate
Looking at reasons for imprisonment will further clarify why the incarceration rate and length of sentences are so high. The practice of imposing longer prison sentences on repeat offenders is common in many countries but the three-strikes laws in the U.S. with mandatory 25 year imprisonment — implemented in many states in the 1990s — are statutes enacted by state governments in the United States which mandate state courts to impose harsher sentences on habitual offenders who are previously convicted of two prior serious criminal offenses and then commit a third.
Crime in China
In 2011, the reported murder rate in China was 1.0 per 100,000 people, with 13,410 murders. The murder rate in 2010 was 1.1.
Capital punishment in China
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the mainland of People's republic of China, as well as in Republic of China (Taiwan). It is mostly enforced for murder and drug trafficking, and executions are carried out by lethal injection or gun shot. Although Chinese government is often lambasted by Western governments on this issue, capital punishment as a legal penalty receives overwhelming public support in China , and remains popular in many other countries in Asia, including Japan with 80% of respondents supporting the death penalty.
2011 crackdown on dissidents in China
The 2011 crackdown on dissidents in China refers to the arrest of dozens of mainland Chinese rights lawyers, activists and grassroots agitators in a response to the 2011 Chinese pro-democracy protests. Since the protests, at least 54 Chinese activists have been arrested or detained by authorities in the biggest crackdown on dissent since the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Since the start of the protests in mid-February 2011, human rights groups have claimed that more than 54 people have been arrested by authorities, some of whom have been charged with crimes. Among those arrested are bloggers who criticise the government such as Ai Weiwei, lawyers who pursue cases against the government, and human rights activists.
Human rights in China
Although China outlawed torture in 1996, human rights groups say brutality and degradation are common in Chinese arbitrary detention centres, Laojiao prisons and black jails. People who are imprisoned for their political views, human rights activities or religious beliefs have a high risk of being tortured. Strategies of torture inside black jail include deprivation of sleep, food, and medication. The strategies are all quite inhumane conditions. In a specific case, a woman named Huang Yan was imprisoned for her political views and included the deprivation of medication. She had diabetes and ovarian cancer which required her to take medication in order to maintain order. Tests have shown that the ovarian cancer have spread throughout her body. While the existence of black jails is acknowledged by at least part of the government, the CPC strongly denies facilitating the operation of such jails and officially cracks down on them, leading to at least one trial.
Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries
According to , the harshness of the official prison system reached unprecedented levels, and the mortality rate until 1952 was "certainly in excess" of 5 percent per year, and reached 50 percent during six months in Guangxi. In Shanxi, more than 300 people died per day in one mine. Torture was commonplace and the suppression of revolts, which were quite numerous, resulted in "veritable massacres." One Chinese priest died after being interrogated for over 100 hours. Of the 20,000 inmates who worked in the oilfields of Yanchang, several thousand were executed.
China
Although a middle-income country by Western standards, China's rapid growth has pulled hundreds of millions of its people out of poverty since 1978. Today, about 10% of the Chinese population lives below the poverty line of US$1 per day, down from 64% in 1978. In 2014, the urban unemployment rate of China was about 4.1%.
United States incarceration rate
In the last forty years, incarceration has increased with rates upwards of 500% despite crime rates decreasing nationally. Between the years 2001 and 2012, crime rates (both property and violent crimes) have consistently declined at a rate of 22% after already falling an additional 30% in years prior between 1991 and 2001. As of 2012, there are 710 people per every 100,000 U.S. residents in the United States that are imprisoned in either local jails, state prisons, federal prisons, and privately operated facilities. This correlates to incarcerating a number close to almost a quarter of the prison population in the entire world. Mass incarceration is an intervening variable to more incarceration.
Kidnapping in China
Kidnapping has become a growing business in China. Steve Vickers of Kroll Associates has reportedly noted that some common scenarios of kidnapping in China includes the kidnapping for ransom, kidnapping of a foreigner(commonly in Hong Kong or Macau).
Open Letter asking Xi Jinping to Resign
Chinese media is heavily regulated; government censors often remove content on websites and social media. By 2015, China had 49 reporters behind bars, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists; Freedom House had ranked the country as the world's worst abuser of internet freedom. In February 2016, Xi Jinping visited state media outlets in a tour widely seen as an attempt to further bring journalists to heel and to stamp out freedom of expression. Early 2016 saw a spate of publicized censorship incidents and a crackdown on journalists, lawyers, and dissidents.
Free China: The Courage to Believe
With more than one hundred thousand protests occurring each year inside China, unrest among Chinese people is building with the breaking of each political scandal. As China’s prisoners of conscience are subjected to forced labor and possibly organ harvesting, but at this time it is unconfirmed. This timely documentary exposes profound issues such as genocide and unfair trade practices with the West. The film also highlights how new Internet technologies are helping bring freedom to more than 1.3 billion people living in China and other repressive regimes throughout the world.The film won awards at 8 film festivals, including American INSIGHT's "2012 Free Speech Film Festival" and WorldFest's "2012 Film Festival".
Capital punishment in China
Because of the wide application of capital offenses in Chinese criminal law, substantial use of capital punishment, and the hidden numbers of the execution rate, the Chinese death penalty system has been criticized by many international organizations from perspectives such as the right to live, presumption of innocence and proportionality. A foreign reporter stated, "China's enthusiasm for capital punishment has long been a target for international criticism of its human rights record." Most of the international criticism stems from the wide scope of capital offenses and the amnesty system.
List of prisons in Hong Kong
This is a list of prisons in Hong Kong managed by the Correctional Services Department.
Hong Kong has one of the highest rates of imprisonment in the region at around 163 per 100,000. Only Singapore at 290, Thailand at 270 and, Mongolia at 253 exceed this level. Japan [40], Australia [100] Canada [114] and New Zealand [143 per 100,000] and most other Asian countries had much lower rates [APCCA 1998]. Imprisonment rates have declined from levels above 200 per 100,000 during 1991-1996 due to fluctuations in the numbers of illegal immigrants.
Comparison of United States incarceration rate with other countries
Even though there are other countries that have a higher rate of committing inmates to prison annually, the fact that the United States keeps their prisoners longer causes the total incarceration rate to become higher. To give an example, the average burglary sentence in the United States is 16 months, compared to 5 months in Canada and 7 months in England.
Voting rights in the United States
The United States has a higher proportion of its population in prison than any other Western nation, and more than Russia or China. The dramatic rise in the rate of incarceration in the United States, a 500% increase from the 1970s to the 1990s, has vastly increased the number of people disenfranchised because of the felon provisions.
United States incarceration rate
Total U.S. incarceration (prisons and jails) peaked in 2008. Total correctional population peaked in 2007. If all prisoners are counted (including those juvenile, territorial, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) (immigration detention), Indian country, and military), then in 2008 the United States had around 24.7% of the world's 9.8 million prisoners.
Incarceration of women
In general, statistical information in regards to the rate of incarceration for women in China has been found difficult to compare that to other countries around the world. However, some scholars argued in 2003 that approximately one-fifth of the total number of women in the United States would be equivalent to that of the total population of women incarcerated in China.
Coal in China
In 2003, the death rate per million tons of coal mined in China was 130 times higher than in the United States, 250 times higher than in Australia (open cast mines) and 10 times higher than the Russian Federation (underground mines). However the safety figures in the major state owned coal enterprises were significantly better. Even so, in 2007 China produced one third of the world's coal but had four fifths of coal fatalities. It is also important to mention that China's coal mining industry resorts to forced labor according to a 2014 U.S. Department of Labor report on child labor and forced labor around the world, and that these workers are all the more exposed to the dangers of such activities.
Rape in China
There are numerous cases of sexual assault are unrecorded. The survey of previous paragraph has updated some new information, it turns out that 22.7 percent of males acknowledged that they had raped a woman before. Further, only 24.9 percent of Chinese sexual culprits were in custody while other countries surveyed had average 32.5 percent. In addition, only 15.6 percent of Chinese criminals were sent to jail while other countries had average 22.9 percent. The data shows Chinese reports for sexual assault is lower than other countries in Asia Pacific region, but in fact it is not the truth.
Chaohu Prison
Chaohu Prison is a prison in Chaohu, Anhui, China. It was established in 1959. It is the province's 3rd largest prison currently employing over 1200 guards and other employees. Most of the inmates here are sentenced to life or serving commuted death sentences. The factory was established in 1959 and is a national key enterprise in the machinery industry. It is also a special enterprise designated by the Ministry of Railways to produce railway parts. Products made here are used in all railway engineering departments throughout China.
Capital punishment in China
A survey conducted in 2008 by the Max Planck Institute showed that 60 percent of survey respondents in Beijing, Hubei, and Guangdong supported the death penalty. Thus, capital punishment contributes to the legitimacy of the Communist Party, as the regime is therefore satisfying public sentiment and indignation when corrupt officials are executed. In the past, the public hear few dissenting opinions towards the death penalty. However, reducing or abolishing the use of death penalty has become a topic of open discussion over the recent years.
Capital punishment in China
Since 1980, the state's security apparatus has initiated various "strike hard" () campaigns against specific types of crime. Critics have noted that the campaigns lead to the streamlining of capital cases, where cases are investigated, appeals heard, and sentences carried out at rates much more rapidly than normal. Since 2006, Chinese Supreme Court justice Xiao Yang has worked to blunt the "strike hard" policy with his own policy of "balancing leniency and severity" (), which is supposedly influenced by Hu Jintao's harmonious society concept. Xiao's policy includes improving the quality of appeals by mandating that the SPC, rather than simply the high people's court, review capital crime cases; increasing use of the "death sentence with two years' probation"; and requiring "clear facts" and "abundant evidence" for capital cases.
Internet censorship in China
In mid-2013 police across China announced the arrests of hundreds of people accused of spreading false rumours online. Chinese authorities have said the crackdown is directed at abuses such as fraud, fakery, and slander. But the accusations against many of the arrested microbloggers have a political edge with many of the rumours called outrageously false by the government dealing with the sins of officials: corruption, venality, and sexual escapades. The suspicion is that the crackdown is intended to break up online networks of like-minded people whose ideas could challenge the Communist Party. Some of China's most popular microbloggers have been arrested. In September 2013 China's highest court and prosecution office issued guidelines that define and outline penalties for publishing online rumours and slander. The rules give some protection to citizens who accuse officials of corruption, but they say that a slanderous message forwarded more than 500 times or read more than 5,000 times could result in up to three years in prison.
List of countries by incarceration rate
World Prison Brief WPB) may or may not incorporate juvenile incarceration numbers into the totals for each country. See the individual WPB country pages for more info.
Chongori concentration camp
Chongori concentration camp is a large prison compound, around long and wide. The main section is surrounded by a high wall, while the branch offices are surrounded with barbed wire and an electrified fence. In 2005 there used to be around 2000 prisoners, mostly non-political criminals, but often sentenced there for desperate offences such as stealing food. They are guarded by around 300 prison guards with machine guns. From 2006 on the number of prisoners increased significantly, as many defectors deported from China were arrested in Chongori camp. Theoretically, prisoners should be released after reeducation through labor and serving their sentence, but since the prison sentences are very long and the conditions are very harsh, many do not survive their prison sentences. A former prisoner estimates, that during his eight months of detention, around 800 prisoners died from hard labor and sub-subsistence level food rations.
Alternatives to imprisonment
Academic studies are inconclusive as to whether high imprisonment rates reduce crime rates in comparison to low imprisonment rates. While they at least remove offenders from the community. there is little evidence that prisons can rehabilitate offenders or deter crime. Some inmates are at risk of being drawn further into crime. They may make friends with other criminals, have their medical or mental health needs neglected or endure further abuse from other prisoners and even staff. If they are supporting a family, they will suffer from the parent's absence. Released prisoners commonly have difficulty finding work and earning a legal income. As a result, most countries have high recividism rates. In the United States, 67.8% of released prisoners are rearrested within three years and 76.6% are rearrested within five years.
United States incarceration rate
A 2014 report by the National Research Council identified two main causes of the increase in the United States' incarceration rate over the previous 40 years: longer prison sentences and increases in the likelihood of imprisonment. The same report found that longer prison sentences were the main driver of increasing incarceration rates since 1990.
Hepatitis C
Intravenous drug use (IDU) is a major risk factor for in many parts of the world. Of 77 countries reviewed, 25 (including the United States) were found to have prevalences of in the intravenous drug user population of between 60% and 80%. Twelve countries had rates greater than 80%. It is believed that ten million intravenous drug users are infected with ; China (1.6 million), the United States (1.5 million), and Russia (1.3 million) have the highest absolute totals. Occurrence of among prison inmates in the United States is 10 to 20 times that of the occurrence observed in the general population; this has been attributed to high-risk behavior in prisons such as IDU and tattooing with nonsterile equipment. Shared intranasal drug use may also be a risk factor.
Authoritarian capitalism
It is generally agreed that China is an authoritarian regime, with the Fraser Institute ranking them 136th for personal freedom and the Humans Right Watch's 2018 report describing a "broad and sustained offensive on human rights" within China due to the treatment of activists, restrictions to freedom of information, political expression, religious freedom and minority rights as their core reasons. Moreover, while recognising the limited scope and reducing pace of capitalism within China, with the Heritage Foundation ranking them 110th for economic freedom in 2018, Michael Witt argues that China broadly displays capitalist traits with a significant number of companies either being private or shared between private and public owners alongside a strong entrepreneurial presence despite a continued predominance of indirect state control.
List of countries by incarceration rate
The chart source does not list an incarceration rate for the UK as a whole. In the list see Scotland, Northern Ireland, and England and Wales. If there is a rate for the United Kingdom in the table below it has been calculated by adding up the population of the constituent parts of the UK, and by adding up the prison populations.
Kidnapping in China
In 2011, Chinese police asserted that they rescued over 13,000 children and 23,000 women in last two years. Government officials had noted that they would impose harsher punishments on those who purchase kidnapped children.
Ministry of Justice of the People's Republic of China
The (司法部监狱管理局) operates national prisons in China. As of 2015 Liu Zhenyu (刘振宇) is the head of the department.
Extermination through labour
Like the Soviet system, Mao Zedong's rule of China also installed an extremely deadly forced labor and prison system known as the Laogai or "reform through labour". According to Jean-Louis Margolin during the Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries, the harshness of the official prison system reached unprecedented levels, and the mortality rate until 1952 was "certainly in excess" of 5 percent per year, and reached 50 percent during six months in Guangxi. In Shanxi, more than 300 people died per day in one mine. Torture was commonplace and the suppression of revolts, which were quite numerous, resulted in "veritable massacres". One Chinese priest died after being interrogated for over 100 hours. Of the 20,000 inmates who worked in the oilfields of Yanchang, several thousand were executed.
United States incarceration rate
In a 2011 report by the ACLU, it is claimed that the rise of the for-profit prison industry is a "major contributor" to "mass incarceration," along with bloated state budgets. Louisiana, for example, has the highest rate of incarceration in the world with the majority of its prisoners being housed in privatized, for-profit facilities. Such institutions could face bankruptcy without a steady influx of prisoners. A 2013 Bloomberg report states that in the past decade the number of inmates in for-profit prisons throughout the U.S. rose 44 percent.
Bangkok Rules
Estimated to account for between two to ten percent of national prison populations, women are the fastest growing prisoner demographic. In the US, for example, the number of incarcerated women has grown at roughly twice the rate for men, multiplying by almost a factor of seven in the last three decades. Chinese data are not up to date, but, between 1997 and 2002, the number of women in Chinese prisons increased at an average annual rate of 13 percent.
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.
List of re-education through labor camps in China
Re-education through labor (RTL; in Chinese, "laodong jiaoyang" 劳动教养, abbreviated láojiào 劳教) is a system of administrative detentions in the People's Republic of China. The estimated number of detainees in re-education through labor camps is anywhere from 300,000 ("China Labor Bulletin", 2007) to 2 million (Laogai Research Foundation, 2006). There are at least 310 camps in China ("China Daily", 2007).
Kidnapping in China
As of 2018, the Chinese government has notoriously kidnapped and imprisoned prominent businessmen including Yang Zhihui, Wu Xiaohui and Guo Guangchang. This is part of the crackdown on "market manipulation" yet critics condemn the actions of the Chinese government stating that they are breaking UN human rights regulations and censoring the freedom of speech in China.