In a groundbreaking work, Klaus Muhlhahn offers a comprehensive
examination of the criminal justice system in modern China, an
institution deeply rooted in politics, society, and culture.
In late imperial China, flogging, tattooing, torture, and
servitude were routine punishments. Sentences, including
executions, were generally carried out in public. After 1905, in a
drive to build a strong state and curtail pressure from the West,
Chinese officials initiated major legal reforms. Physical
punishments were replaced by fines and imprisonment. Capital
punishment, though removed from the public sphere, remained in
force for the worst crimes. Trials no longer relied on confessions
obtained through torture but were instead held in open court and
based on evidence. Prison reform became the centerpiece of an
ambitious social-improvement program.
After 1949, the Chinese communists developed their own
definitions of criminality and new forms of punishment. People s
tribunals were convened before large crowds, which often
participated in the proceedings. At the center of the socialist
system was reform through labor, and thousands of camps
administered prison sentences. Eventually, the communist leadership
used the camps to detain anyone who offended against the new
society, and the crime of counterrevolution was born.
Muhlhahn reveals the broad contours of criminal justice from
late imperial China to the Deng reform era and details the
underlying values, successes and failures, and ultimate human costs
of the system. Based on unprecedented research in Chinese archives
and incorporating prisoner testimonies, witness reports, and
interviews, this book is essential reading for understanding modern
China.
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