Re-education through labour in historical perspective

Re-education through labour (laodong jiaoyang or laojiao for short) is an administrative punishment imposed by the police. Since its inception in 1955, it has become a convenient instrument for the government to use to deal with any crisis. Its development has largely followed the ebb and flow of the CCP's political behaviour. Created as a comparatively mild suppression of counterrevolutionary activities, laojiao served as a useful instrument of punishment for dissenting intellectuals in 1958, though it was then nearly phased out during the radical years of the Cultural Revolution. Laojiao expanded quickly as a result of the CCP's anti-crime strategy after 1983, and has grown steadily ever since. It now serves multiple functions, including crime control, drug rehabilitation, investigative detention and political control. It enjoys different degrees of legitimacy and justification. Any substantive discussion on the future of laojiao has to be offence and offender specific. © The China Quarterly, 2005.published_or_final_versio

Climbing the Weiquan Ladder: A Radicalizing process for rights-protection lawyers

It is commonly acknowledged that weiquan lawyers operate in a narrow space, and lawyers with a radical stance work within a harsh environment. Weiquan lawyers advance and retreat in response to the changing macro-political-legal environment, but there is no sign that they are giving up their legal struggles. A steadily growing number of weiquan lawyers are tending to become more radical in their approach as their experience advances. This article studies the process in which weiquan lawyers start and sustain weiquan lawyering in a harsh environment and the factors that contribute to the radicalizing process. Its principal purpose is to identify and explain a radicalization process in which a lawyer climbs up the ladder of weiquan lawyering, from a moderate lawyer providing legal aid in individual cases to a critical or radical lawyer. © 2011 The China Quarterly.published_or_final_versio

Paired Hormone Response Elements Predict Caveolin-1 as a Glucocorticoid Target Gene

Glucocorticoids act in part via glucocortocoid receptor binding to hormone response elements (HREs), but their direct target genes in vivo are still largely unknown. We developed the criterion that genomic occurrence of paired HREs at an inter-HRE distance less than 200 bp predicts hormone responsiveness, based on synergy of multiple HREs, and HRE information from known target genes. This criterion predicts a substantial number of novel responsive genes, when applied to genomic regions 10 kb upstream of genes. Multiple-tissue in situ hybridization showed that mRNA expression of 6 out of 10 selected genes was induced in a tissue-specific manner in mice treated with a single dose of corticosterone, with the spleen being the most responsive organ. Caveolin-1 was strongly responsive in several organs, and the HRE pair in its upstream region showed increased occupancy by glucocorticoid receptor in response to corticosterone. Our approach allowed for discovery of novel tissue specific glucocorticoid target genes, which may exemplify responses underlying the permissive actions of glucocorticoids

Commentary on "Transforming Family Law in Post-Deng China"

Michael Palmer's article examines the development of three important aspects in Chinese family law: divorce, adoption and family planning. It is a commendable effort to approach Chinese family law broadly in order to bring family planning policy within its study. There remains a glaring gap in Chinese legal scholarship between the study of family law and the study of population. The disciplines are divided into two camps with little cross-fertilization. Palmer's article clearly demonstrates the importance and necessity of including family planning within the study of family law. The article is also a laudable attempt to examine the dynamic interaction between family law and socioeconomic changes. © 2007 The China Quarterly.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Zhou Yongkang and the recent police reform in China

This article is an attempt to understand the conflicting imperatives of police reform and the underlying constraints affecting it in a one-party state. When China entered the 21st century, police abuse of powers was a conspicuous national problem. Facing mounting public outcry, as crystallised in the series of scandals before 2003, the police, under the leadership of the powerful new Minister, started a nationwide campaign to control police abuses. The article analyses the competing explanations for police abuses in China and the conflicting demands placed on the police in China's social and economic transition. The article concludes that the ultimate restriction on police reform in China is its politicisation. As long as China remains an authoritarian state, which uses police to maintain its political stability, the police will still be unable to be truly responsive and accountable to public need.link_to_subscribed_fulltex