What is "laogai"

n. The use of prison labor and prison farms in the People's Republic of China.

Laogai (勞改/劳改), the abbreviation for Láodòng Gǎizào (勞動改造/劳动改造), which means "reform through labor", is a slogan of the Chinese criminal justice system and has been used to refer to the use of penal labour and prison farms in the People's Republic of China (PRC), which once took up more than half of the world's slaves. Laogai is different from laojiao, or re-education through labor, which was an administrative detention for a person who was not a criminal but had committed minor offenses, and was intended to reform offenders into law-abiding citizens. Persons detained under laojiao were detained in facilities that were separate from the general prison system of laogai. Both systems, however, involved penal labor.

In 1994 laogai camps were renamed "prisons". However, Chinese Criminal Law still stipulates that prisoners able to work shall "accept education and reform through labor". The existence of an extensive network of forced-labor camps producing consumer goods for export to Europe and the United States became classified. Publication of information about China's prison system by Al Jazeera English resulted in its expulsion from China on May 7, 2012.