Earlier this year, the government indicated that the controversial punishment of reeducation through labour (RTL) would be reformed, with a view towards eventually being scrapped. Guangzhou appears to be leading a way after a senior judge in the city said the province stopped taking new re-education through labour cases in March and that the 100 or so detainees in Guangzhou’s labour camps would all be released by year end, China Digital Times reports.

A policeman leads inmates into a reeducation through labour camp, image courtesy of Reuters (via The Atlantic)

Introduced by Mao Zedong in the 1950s to detain political enemies, police and legal experts have deemed the system to be outdated, according to China Daily.

Yu Mingyong, deputy president of Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court, was quoted as saying: “Many of those released from laojiao find many difficulties returning to society, families and work after … their personal freedom has been restricted in labor camps for several years.”

Early this year, a statement from Human Rights Watch had this to say:

Public outrage over RTL cases has grown in recent months, particularly about RTL punishments given to individuals who complain about the government and who express their opinions online, including Tang Hui, a mother sent to RTL in 2012 for complaining to the government about the rape of her young daughter.

However, attempts to scrap the system could be complicated by the fact that the camps generate revenue for the Chinese government. According to the Laogai Research Foundation: “The Chinese government profits handsomely from the labor camp system by allowing goods made with forced labor to enter both domestic and international markets.”