BEIJING — The former prisoner runs a dirt-stained hand over a scar on his forehead and recalls the pain of near-daily whippings by police guards at the Fuxin Reeducation Through Labor facility in northeast China.
"Since we didn't get enough to eat and the work they forced us to do was so hard, we'd collapse, leading to a bad beating," said Liu Jun, 36. "It was also a way for the police to remind you that bribing them would give you less work and more food.
"They enjoyed hurting you so much, sometimes we'd dream of killing them."
Liu said his only crime was having the same name as a criminal; local police served as both judge and jury.
For 50 years, China's Mao-era reeducation through labor, or laojiao, program has allowed police to sentence petty criminals or anyone they consider troublemakers to as many as four years of incarceration without trial. China's parliament will consider reforming or abolishing the system during its annual session, which begins today, the state-run English-language China Daily said last week.
Real power in China is held by a small group of Politburo members, but the National People's Congress provides insights into their thinking. Other items on the agenda for the 12-day session include measures to protect private property, end preferential treatment for foreign firms and reduce the budget deficit. Debates are expected on issues such as corruption, pollution and easing rural poverty.
The United Nations, Western governments and human rights groups as well as China's Supreme People's Court have roundly criticized the laojiao system. Domestic legal experts argue that it's unconstitutional. And the imprisonment of an estimated 200,000 people in such a manner is an embarrassment as Beijing tries to burnish its image as host of the 2008 Olympics.
But getting rid of the entrenched system isn't proving to be easy.
Lined up against its many critics is one major supporter. But in China's single-party state, it's a bruiser: the police.
The Ministry of Public Security's argument resonates among the country's top leaders: How do you expect us to safeguard your power in an era of growing unrest if you require us to follow the niceties of judicial process?
"They like its flexibility, allowing them to take large numbers of people off the street very quickly," said Nicholas Bequelin, a Hong Kong-based China researcher with Human Rights Watch.
