Chinese lawyer Xie Yanyi’s request to the Ministry of Justice that information about China’s reeducation-through-labor system be made available to the public has been denied. The Dui Hua Human Rights Journal has translated both Xie’s letter and the MoJ’s response:
Document One: Xie Yanyi’s Request to the Ministry of Justice
To: Ministry of Justice of the PRC
From: Xie Yanyi, applicant
Date: May 14, 20091. Make public on the Ministry of Justice website how many RTL facilities there are currently in China, how many citizens are currently being held in RTL, how many police officers there are in the RTL system, and the annual state financial expenditure [for the RTL system];
2. Make public on the MOJ website how many citizens who have been sent to RTL in the past five years have not accepted the RTL decision and have filed an appeal (including through administrative review, lawsuit, formal complaint, petition, accusation, etc.) and what sort of legal relief these citizens who have been sent to RTL received, such as the acceptance and success rates for administrative lawsuits;
3. Make public on the MOJ website the proportion of the various groups that comprise the group of citizens who have been sent to RTL in the past five years. For example: (1) The percentage and number of petitioners; (2) the percentage and number of religious believers; (3) the percentage and number of individuals sent to RTL who created serious disturbances or other [offenses] that did not “reach the level where they should be subject to criminal punishment”; (4) the percentage and number of dissidents, those imprisoned for speech, rightists, etc.
