Opportunities and Challenges for Legislative and Institutional Reform of Detention in China

Abstract

Throughout this volume, we have used the word ‘reform’ to refer to the changes to legislation governing deprivation of liberty in contemporary China, as well as to the institutions responsible for enforcing such legislation. As many other words do, ‘reform’ carries two distinct connotations, which depend on the ideological and cultural context of the speaker. For most western scholars who are active in the field of China studies, the word ‘reform’ conjures up the idea of a teleological march from Marxism to liberal modernity. This connotation is absent from the word ‘gaige’, the Chinese original for ‘reform’ which lacks such a directional element. Because of this, ‘reform’ is a term all those who, in China, write or speak about detention often want to use cautiously, as it belongs to two distinct universes of meaning at the same time.