Dump them all
Li overheard a guard in the center telling him that officers in the city's public security bureaus also had a quota to fill every month. However, theirs didn't depend on stitching shoes together but on ensuring a steady supply of cheap labor to the camp to ensure orders were met.
According to the principles of labor reeducation, released in 1982, people such as "anti-revolutionaries" and those disrupting social order but not in a way serious enough to constitute a criminal charge would be sent to the labor camp.
But Xu Chuanzhu, 41, never thought she would become such a detainee.
Xu used to be a real estate agent in Nanjing but her life was turned upside down after she got into a debt dispute with one of her buyers in 2011. Xu's relatives attacked the buyer but a deal was struck to not pursue any further charges in October.
But a month later, six police officers in plainclothes claiming to be from the Houzaimen branch of Nanjing's Xuanwu district drove to her agency, hit one of her employees and took Xu into police custody on November 22, 2011 without a warrant, Xu said. She stayed in a detention center for 40 days without her cell phone. She was then transferred to a women labor reeducation center for starting the fight with the buyer in January 2012.
Xu was sick for four months in the center but she was never given the time to rest by labor center management but forced to work from morning till night, standing for hours on end.
"I had only half a day of rest each week because we needed to do the laundry. There were 300 people in one team and seven teams in total at the center. We had to all line up for meals with half an hour to eat. After waiting in line and sitting down, we had 15 minutes for each meal," Xu told the Global Times.
"I had no clue how I ended up in the center. My case was a civil one and we had already finalized a deal," Xu said, adding that she is now suing the local police for their actions.
No restraints
The work that detainees must do in the centers should be aimed at helping them find work after their release, according to national labor reeducation principles. The workload should also be adjusted to account for differences in gender, age, physical condition and skills.
The law also details that centers should refuse any requests to take advantage of the workforce inside the centers. But these centers have become money machines and a living hell in the eyes of detainees.
Ren Jianyu, 25, who was arrested in 2011 for forwarding and commenting on more than 100 pieces of "negative information" online, also complained about the tough workload he was unable to finish.
A month after Ren's arrest, he was given a two-year term in a labor camp for "incitement to subvert State power" without judicial process. Ren was released in November 2012 after serving over half of his sentence.
Ren was very lucky to get help and attention from society, but most cases proceed silently with no prosecutors or courts willing to take them on.
Each former detainee interviewed in Nanjing sent dozens of letters to local courts but not a single one of them was granted a case out of their requests or were given any explanation as to why.
Reforms of the labor reeducation system were hotly debated by lawmakers during this year's National People's Congress in March. The system is criticized as being a tool for police to sentence people for up to four years without a legitimate trial.
Premier Li Keqiang also said that a plan will be released by the end of the year in an attempt to quell public uproar.
"I feel optimistic about these signs from the new government. Maybe my case can get a settlement in the near future. But I know it will be hard. Since I have already fought for more than 10 years, what do I care about waiting and fighting for a little bit longer?" Tang said.
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