Human rights report exposes China’s ‘black jails’

KIDNAPPING people on their way to lodge complaints with China’s central government has evolved into a lucrative cottage industry that police refuse to acknowledge or crack down on, a human rights group has said.

The report by New York-based Human Rights Watch on China’s “black jails” is based mainly on interviews with 38 people who said they were nabbed by thugs while trying to bring grievances to the central government. They reported being held for days or months in makeshift detention centres, deprived of food and sleep, beaten and threatened. Police allegedly aided the captors or refused to intervene in several cases, it said.

Black jails emerged in China about six years ago after police were barred from randomly detaining vagrants. The jails, usually makeshift lockups in hostels, apartment buildings or abandoned factories, have been well-documented by human rights groups, lawyers and the international media.

However, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang rejected the Human Rights Watch study and questioned why it was released.

“I don’t know what their motivation was,” he said. “I can assure you there are no so-called black jails in China. We put people first, and we are an administration for the people.”

The report sheds new light on the economics of the jails and why they evade crackdowns despite violating Chinese and international law.

It blames a civil service evaluation system that uses a point system to penalise officials if too many people from their jurisdiction complain to the central government and rewards those who are able to minimise grievances. Because bonuses and promotions are linked to evaluations, it is economical for officials to pay people to intercept, detain and intimidate petitioners, it said.

Police in Beijing and other cities are aware of the jails but ignore them because they keep potentially troublesome petitioners away from cities, the report said. In some cases, police also have “directly assisted black jail operators”, it said.