Calls to abolish labour camps are unlikely to be heard by NPC

With less than a week to go before the annual meeting of the National People's Congress, anyone hoping for bold and rapid action from China's new leaders on the 50-year-old re-education through labour system might be disappointed.

Public hopes soared in January after media reported the new security tsar had promised to "halt" the practice of sending petty criminals and government critics to forced labour camps for up to four years without trial.

Meng Jianzhu , secretary of the Communist Party's Political and Legal Affairs Commission, was quoted as telling a national law and order work conference the laojiao

(re-education through labour) system would be "halted" after the NPC rubber-stamped the move in March.

However, the latest issue of the party's flagship magazine Qiushi published an excerpt from Meng's January speech which said the re-education through labour system would be "reformed", rather than halted, this year.

Professor He Bing , vice-president of China University of Political Science and Law, said more than reform was called for.

"Reform is always a good idea, but this one has to be abolished immediately," he said. "Local governments and police bureaus have been relying on the system as an easy way to tackle problems. They don't try to settle the problems, which is more complicated, but use laojiao to settle the person who has problems."