The Laogai, like the gulag, has continued as an instrument of Party rule. The gulag only ended when the Soviet Union itself collapsed. Despite many societal advances in the People's Republic of China, the dictators in Beijing continue to depend upon its Laogai system as a tool for suppression. Far from abandoning it, the Chinese Communist party is constantly strengthening its forced labor system. Almost everyone in China is related to or knows someone who has served a lengthy sentence in a Laogai camp.
Millions know people who simply disappeared into the camps, never to be heard from again.
They are prisoners by any common-sense definition. The CCP maintains complete control over all of these entities, and uses them to sustain its power. The camps are also an integral part of China's national economy. China is not, after all, a nation of laws. It is run by the Chinese Communist Party, which interprets China's constitution and legal codes in an arbitrary manner, allowing it to maintain its monopoly on power.