China Expands Its ‘Gulag Archipelago’
China has built or expanded more than 200 detention facilities across the country to hold and interrogate corrupt officials and political rivals of General Secretary Xi Jinping, according to a cnn investigation published December 28.
The old shuanggui: The Chinese Communist Party (ccp) for decades had a secretive and illegal detention system that disappeared officials into party compounds, hotels or other secret locations for months to interrogate them without access to family or legal counsel.
The practice was known as shuanggui or “double designation,” referring to the party’s power to interrogate somebody at a designated time and place. Shuanggui was officially aborted by Xi in 2018 after criticism grew over abuse, torture and forced confession during the interrogations.
But secret detention did not stop.
The new liuzhi: As part of the constitutional revision in 2018, Xi codified secret detention by law and placed it under view of the National Supervisory Commission, which has close ties to the Communist Party.
The new detention regime, known as liuzhi, or “retention in custody,” includes facilities with padded walls and 24-hour guards in every cell where people can be held for up to six months without seeing a lawyer or family.
More and more of these liuzhi detention centers have been built in the past two years, particularly in regions with a higher percentage of ethnic minorities.
Inhumane treatment: The liuzhi law officially bans investigators from using threats, deception and physical violence to collect evidence. However, the report details many detainees, including political prisoners, have suffered abuse, threats and forced confessions while in custody.
One example is Chen Jianjun, a local official who was deceived and forced into making false confessions of taking a bribe while under liuzhi in 2022.
During six months of detention, he was watched by rotating guards around the clock and was forced to sit upright for 18 hours a day without moving or speaking. He was allowed to sleep for only six hours a day under bright lights that were never switched off; he had to lie on his back and keep his hands above the blanket. He also received very little food, losing 33 pounds during detention.
The prolonged torment left me physically and mentally exhausted, with blurred consciousness, a mental breakdown, chaotic thoughts and hallucinations.
—Chen Jianjun
The next year, as a result of his forced confession, Chen was sentenced to six years in prison for accepting bribes.
Bow down to China: The inhumane tactics China has used and even legalized to make its people submit to the Communist Party show the lengths it is willing to go to exercise its complete control. Bible prophecy shows these efforts are only the beginning of a global era in which Gentile tyrants from nations like China will dominate our world.
To learn more, read “‘They Want the World to Bow Down to China.’”
