The practice of laojiao, the system of re-education through labor, was established in the early 1950s and legalized in 1957 by China's top legislature.

Under the laojiao system, used to detain people for committing minor crimes, a person can be confined for up to four years without an open trial.

The laojiao system was imposed at a time when the nation attempted to create social order after the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949.