RETURNING HOME: Ren Jianyu, a former village official in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, was given a two-year term in a labor camp without due process in court in 2011 (IC)

In 2012, two high-profile cases put re-education through labor under intense public scrutiny.

Last August, a woman named Tang Hui in central China's Hunan Province was sentenced to 18 months of re-education through labor after she demanded execution of the seven men convicted of abducting, raping and prostituting her 11-year-old daughter. Following complaints from academics, media outlets and the public, Tang was released after serving less than a week in a labor camp.

In another case, Ren Jianyu, a 25-year-old college graduate and former village official in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, was arrested in 2011 for forwarding and commenting on more than 100 pieces of "negative information" online. A month after his arrest, he was given a two-year term in a labor camp for "incitement to subvert state power" without due process in court. On November 19, 2012, the Chongqing Laojiao Commission, the local organization in charge of the re-education through labor system, revoked the punishment and Ren was released after serving 15 months of his sentence.

These cases promoted people to call for the reform or abolition of the system.

On February 5, Meng Sutie, Secretary of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the Yunnan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, announced that from then on, the province will no longer impose re-education through labor upon people suspected of jeopardizing national security, causing unrest during petitions or vilifying public officials.

He also said re-education through labor will also be suspended for people committing other illegal behavior, who will instead be punished by relevant laws.

Guangdong Province in south China is also planning to end its re-education through labor system within the year.

"If the system is abolished, re-education institutions will no longer admit new inmates, and those already detained will be released after serving their terms," said Yan Zhichan, Director of the Guangdong Provincial Department of Justice.

Most of the inmates in Guangdong's labor camps are drug addicts under compulsory rehabilitation and detoxification, but not people accused of minor illegal behavior such as gambling and prostitution, Yan added.

Reform on the re-education through labor system is being piloted in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province, Lanzhou, capital of Gansu Province, Zhengzhou, capital of Henan Province and Jinan, capital of Shandong Province. The system is being replaced by "education and correction of illegal acts," reported the China News Service.

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