Detainees at a re-education through labor center in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province perform during an open day for their visiting family members on May 23. Photo: CFP

Chongqing recently became the first region in China to scrap re-education through labor as a punishment for prostitutes and those who solicit their services amid a wave of reforms approved by the southwest municipality's People's Congress Standing Committee. 

The amendment came after the Administrative Coercion Law, which standardizes coercive measures taken by the authorities, was implemented by the State Council on January 1. 

According to previous regulations introduced in 1997, prostitutes and their clients caught in Chongqing faced mandatory re-education through labor and a fine of up to 5,000 yuan ($785).

The reason the committee axed re-education through labor for prostitution offenses was to reduce punishments that "limit people's freedom," the Legal Daily newspaper reported.

Experts divided over law

Re-education through labor is deemed an administrative punishment in China. Aside from prostitution, it is usually reserved for petty thieves and drug addicts. The maximum term for re-education through labor is four years, with most terms ranging between one and three years.

Chongqing's move to abolish re-education through labor for prostitution offenders has been met with mixed responses from legal experts, with some hailing it as a sign of social progress while others insisting it is essential in maintaining public order.

"Re-education through labor doesn't fit in with legal procedures," Lin Zhe, an anti-corruption professor with the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, told the Global Times yesterday.

Chongqing's decision to scrap the punishment for prostitution also paves the way for a clearer distinction between administrative and judicial rulings.

Wang Sixin, a law professor with the Communication University of China, told the Global Times police have no rights to intervene in adults' sex life, describing it as a "personal freedom" and saying such crackdowns on prostitution are a waste of government resources.

China's judicial punishment of re-education through labor has attracted controversy over its legitimacy for many years.

The system was approved by the National People's Congress in 1957 for the purposes of maintaining social security, rehabilitating offenders and acting as a crime deterrent.

"At the time of its inception, re-education through labor was a convenient way to deal with rogues whose actions didn't warrant criminal prosecution. It takes time to administer punishment through legal procedures, but re-education through labor is efficient and doesn't involve cases being dragged through courts," Wang Zhenyu, vice director of the Public Decision-making Center at the China University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times.

Wrongful detention

Wardens at re-education through labor camps ensure legal rights of detainees, such as the right to elect members of the People's Congress, according to the Bureau of Re-education through labor Administration. 

Detainees can receive visits from relatives, receive technical training and some are offered jobs to help them readjust to society, the bureau added.  

 By the end of 2008, there were 350 re-education through labor camps with 160,000 detainees nationwide.

However, cases have emerged in recent years where some detainees have been forcibly re-educated and received harsher punishments than they deserve. 

On February 28, a man sparked panic after spreading rumors online about a SARS outbreak in Baoding, Hebei Province. That same month he received a two-year re-education through labor term despite other rumormongers receiving much lighter punishments, China Central Television reported.

In March 2011, a Web user in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province was detained for 10 days and fined 500 yuan for spreading rumors that seawater near China was contaminated by Japan's nuclear crisis, the China News Service reported.

Ji Azhen, 68, spent nearly a year at a female re-education through labor camp in Jiangsu Province in 2010 after she petitioned for her mentally-handicapped son who was allegedly beaten by police in 2002, Time Weekly reported.

In October 2010, she was sent to the institution in Jurong. During her first two months, she was ordered to receive military training.

In another case where the punishment didn't seem to fit the offense, Wu Chandi was re-educated for one year because she refused to buy a 1-yuan ticket and argued with a bus driver, delaying the vehicle for an hour in Beijing in June 2009. Wu unsuccessfully tried to sue the camp she was sent to in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province.

Public opposition

Hu Xingdou, a professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology, submitted a proposal in 2003 to abolish re-education through labor in the wake of the death of farmer Zhang Bin, who died of torture while receiving the punishment a year earlier in Huludao, Liaoning Province, Southern Metropolis Daily reported.

In 2007, 69 scholars and experts petitioned for the punishment to be scrapped. While they were unsuccessful, minor reforms have occurred in recent years.

While certain offenses, such as using drugs, can invoke mandatory re-education through labor, public security bureaus have the final say on who receives the punishment. While this can lead to the abuse of power, one of the main benefits is that it prevents courts from being overwhelmed, said Chen Tianben, an associate professor at the Chinese People's Public Security University.

"It improves efficiency within society. Re-education through labor plays an important role in maintaining public security in China," Chen said.

While Chongqing might have axed re-education through labor for prostitution offenders, it has retained "re-education through detainment" as a punishment. Prostitutes and their clients can still receive up to two-year terms of re-education, though without labor, at the discretion of the pubic security bureau, according to Southern Metropolis Daily.

Both re-education through labor and its lesser variant without labor give too much power to police and hurt China's reputation as a country run by the rule of law, Wang Zhenyu said.

Cheng Shuli contributed to this story