Labor, no education

[Randy W]

An accounting of life in a "reeducation through labor" center

from the Global Times, the International Edition of the People's Daily

 

Labor, no education

 

Xu used to be a real estate agent in Nanjing but her life was turned upside down after she got into a debt dispute with one of her buyers in 2011. Xu's relatives attacked the buyer but a deal was struck to not pursue any further charges in October.

But a month later, six police officers in plainclothes claiming to be from the Houzaimen branch of Nanjing's Xuanwu district drove to her agency, hit one of her employees and took Xu into police custody on November 22, 2011 without a warrant, Xu said. She stayed in a detention center for 40 days without her cell phone. She was then transferred to a women labor reeducation center for starting the fight with the buyer in January 2012.

Xu was sick for four months in the center but she was never given the time to rest by labor center management but forced to work from morning till night, standing for hours on end.

"I had only half a day of rest each week because we needed to do the laundry. There were 300 people in one team and seven teams in total at the center. We had to all line up for meals with half an hour to eat. After waiting in line and sitting down, we had 15 minutes for each meal," Xu told the Global Times.

"I had no clue how I ended up in the center. My case was a civil one and we had already finalized a deal," Xu said, adding that she is now suing the local police for their actions.

 

. . .

 

Reforms of the labor reeducation system were hotly debated by lawmakers during this year's National People's Congress in March. The system is criticized as being a tool for police to sentence people for up to four years without a legitimate trial.

Premier Li Keqiang also said that a plan will be released by the end of the year in an attempt to quell public uproar.