Thursday 10 February 2011

China's prison population

Well, well, I get a letter published in The Spectator [5 Feb]....
Mind, it won't do anything to quell the criticism I've had of this blog: that on matters Chinese, I'm very (too?) pro China.  Generally, I'd plead guilty to that, as China often gets a bum rap.  Still, see the PS to the letter, in which I correct my own stats....



Postscript (10 Feb 11): I took these figures the International Centre for Prison Studies, here.  What I'd overlooked when I wrote the letter and recalled only after, is that there are many in China incarcerated under the "reform through labour" laws ("lao gai") and these would about double the population rate, to the extent that we know how many are under lao gai.