While the camps have been used mainly to deal with petty criminals, particularly drug offenders and prostitutes, they are increasingly being used to silence political dissidents and thousands of defiant religious renegades, such as Mr Ming. Labour prison factories, detention centres and re-education camps were created by Mao Zedong in the early 1950s. He modelled them on the Russian gulags as a way to punish and reform criminals in a manner useful to the state. The system began as a means of punishing so-called counterrevolutionaries who had committed no major criminal acts and slackers who refused to perform their assigned work. But over the years all kinds of petty crimes have been added to the list.
Police have the power to place offenders in the labour camps.
Anyone can be detained without trial or due process for three years. Mere association with a group unpopular with the authorities can be enough. Falun Gong claims that 5,000 of its members are detained in camps across China, and that more than 100 have died as a result of torture. There have been horrific accounts of prisoners subjected to cruel and degrading treatment and torture. These abuses have been criticised year after year by human rights organisations.