Relieving pressure on overcrowded national prisons by employing convicts as laborers at Chinese-run projects in the developing world is a novel strategy China has adopted — an approach that is certain to create new backlashes against Chinese businesses overseas, besides highlighting the country's egregious human-rights record.
In addition to being the world's biggest executioner, China has one of the largest prison populations in the world. The 2009 "World Prison Population List" compiled by the International Center for Prison Studies at King's College, London, put the total number of inmates in Chinese jails at 1.57 million.
China has evolved in important ways as a result of its economic "opening," with the new social pluralism prompting the state to cut back on totalitarian practices. Yet, with its Soviet-style autocratic structure intact, there is little space for political pluralism. Those who challenge government policies or practices or stage demonstrations against official highhandedness risk long imprisonment.