A Chinese man who served two years in a hard labour camp for mocking a crime crackdown by disgraced former politician Bo Xilai welcomed proposed changes to the “re-education” system on Tuesday.
Peng Hong said he was encouraged by reports that China would reform the long-criticised system, in which people can be sentenced to up to four years of re-education by a police panel without even having a chance to put their case.
“I think there should be a trial procedure before a person is given labour education punishment,” he told reporters in his first interview with foreign media.
“It shouldn’t be as before, when a person’s freedom could be restricted for four years by a committee connected to the police without any trial.”
Peng was sent to the camp near his home town of Chongqing in September 2009.
He had re-posted a political cartoon mocking a crime crackdown launched in the southwestern city by Bo, its then-party chief since toppled by a murder and corruption scandal, and his now-imprisoned head of police Wang Lijun.
On Monday the official microblog of the CCTV state news channel quoted Meng Jianzhu, a member of the powerful 25-strong Politburo who oversees politics and legal affairs, as saying that China would stop using the system.
