5 Chinese Prisons That Are the Size of Small Towns

July 2, 2015

Spanning China is a vast network of labor camps and prisons, administered by the communist regime’s powerful internal security agencies. They hold men and women, intellectuals and the uneducated, prisoners of conscience and corrupt officials. Some are sprawling complexes of slavery and torture; others are special facilities in which privileged convicts serve their sentences in relative comfort.  

The following are five of China’s largest and most expansive prison constructions, all located in the north and northeast of China. Among these are three urban complexes located in or near bustling metropolises; the remaining two lie isolated in the frigid and bleak Manchurian and Mongolian borderlands.

Shenyang Prison City

A Google Earth view of Shenyang Prison City on June 29, 2015. (Screen shot/Google Earth)

Where: Shenyang, capital of Liaoning Province
Built: 2003
Area: 0.15 sq. mi. (0.40 sq. km)

Located about 16 miles from Shenyang City, the sprawling Shenyang Prison City cost 1 billion yuan (about $120 million) to build. There are five complexes: New Arrivals’ Prison, First Shenyang Prison, Second Shenyang Prison, Shenyang Women’s Prison, and the Provisional Prison General Hospital.

The city has a regular resident population of 20,000. Prison cells hold up to 12 inmates, and the per capita living area is about 32 square feet (3 square meters).

This super-penitentiary is referred to as the “important achievement of Bo Xilai.” Bo, the ambitious Politburo member who was purged in 2012, oversaw the construction of the “prison city” in Liaoning Province, where he was the Party secretary from 2003 to 2004.

Many practitioners of the persecuted spiritual discipline Falun Gong from Liaoning were imprisoned here during and after Bo Xilai’s tenure. At least 46 practitioners were persecuted to death in the Shenyang Prison City.

Online writers Zhang Peng and Zhen Yichun were known inmates of the prison. Both were charged with “subversion of state power” for producing articles on topics considered sensitive by the Party, such as the Tiananmen Massacre (Zhang) and the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party (Zhen), a book published by this newspaper that explores the nature of the Party.

Yancheng Prison

Yancheng City prison complex. (Screen shot/Complex.com)

Where: Sanhe, Hebei Province
Built: 2002
Area: 0.17 sq. mi. (0.44 sq. km)

Gu Kailai, the wife of Shenyang Prison City builder Bo Xilai and murderer of British businessman Neil Heywood, is currently serving a life prison term in a jail complex netizens have dubbed “The White House” for its distinctive architecture.

Administered by the Chinese regime’s Ministry of Justice, Yancheng Prison is a so-called “luxury prison” meant for purged Communist Party officials from all over the nation.

The palatial jail boasts neatly manicured lawns as large as three soccer fields (hence its other nickname, the Garden Prison), cells the size of an “average New York City apartment,” a modern-looking, well-equipped gym, and even a cocktail lounge.

Incarcerated ex-Party members and big-time mob bosses still get to enjoy a good life behind bars. They get to enjoy Internet access, smartphones, DVDs, fancy meals, and can call prostitutes to service them.

In contrast, most small-time criminals and prisoners of conscience are frequently tortured, abused, and forced to work extreme hours with miserable rations in labor camps.

In no small part due to Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign, China’s two “luxury prisons”—Yancheng Prison and Qincheng Prison—are becoming overcrowded, according to mainland media. Yancheng Prison has a maximum capacity of 1,600.

Shandong Provincial Prison

Party officials inspect Shandong Provincial Prison in an undated photo. (Screen shot/Baike Baidu)

Where: Jinan, capital of Shandong Province
Built: 1962 
Area:  0.14 sq. mi. (0.35 sq. km)

Shandong Provincial Prison houses separate state-run car and shoe factories.

“Spies” and “intelligence operatives”—it is unclear whether they are actual undercover agents or merely accused of being so under China’s vague national security laws—caught in China are supposedly detained in this prison city. There were 1,294 inmates in 1963, according to the last publicly available figures.

Democracy activist Ren Zhiyuan is one notable inmate in this jail. He was arrested for “subversion of state power” in 2005 and handed a 10-year prison sentence the following year.

In July 2013, former prisoners of Shandong Provincial Prison said that Ren was subjected to multiple beatings, as well as psychological torture, while incarcerated. Because he refuses to plead guilty, Ren has been denied monthly family visits, medical treatment, and the right to appeal in prison.

Baoanzhao Regional Prison

A Google Earth view of a part of Baoanzhao Regional Prison complex on June 29, 2015. (Screen shot/Google Earth)

Where: Jalaid Banner, Hinggan League, Inner Mongolia
Built: 1954
Area: 0.13 sq. mi. (0.325 sq. km)

There are eight prisons and units in Baoanzhao Regional Prison: Baoanzhao Prison, Wutai Prison, Wulan Prison, Second Women’s Prison, Eastern Branch of the Administration of Prisons, Second Disease Management Center, Water and Electricity Management, and Baoanzhao Agriculture and Trade Company.

Baoanzhao housed 6,000 inmates and 1,700 police in 2004.

The prison’s civilian police take on multiple roles—teachers, doctors, nurses, regular staff—in the Water and Electricity Management unit, and are also residents in the area.

At least one Falun Gong practitioner, Zhou Chaixia, was imprisoned and persecuted to death in Baoanzhao Regional Prison. Zhou once headed the Female Labor Division at the Main Labor Union in Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia. According to Falun Gong information website Minghui, Zhou was brutally tortured when she refused to give up her faith, and died from her injuries while at Baoanzhao in July 2003.

Heilongjiang Nehe Prison

A Google Earth view of Heilongjiang Nehe Prison on June 29, 2015. (Screen shot/Google Earth)

Where: Lesser Khingan Mountain Range, Heilongjiang Province
Built: 1955
Area: 53.45 sq. mi (183 sq. km) 

Built a year after the Chinese regime’s wide-scale land reform and collectivization reforms from 1950 to 1953, this massive, “agricultural” prison complex contains 41 square miles (106 square kilometers) of arable land and 60,900 square meters (655,500 square feet) of prison constructions.

In 2004, additional structures were added to house 543 Party members from 24 Party branches. Then, the prison held 1,000 inmates, 390 police, and 2,119 regular employees.

Formerly known as “Laolai prison,” the Heilongjiang mega-penitentiary was renamed Nehe Prison in 2013.

Numerous incidents of manslaughter and suicide at Nehe were reported in January this year. Prison guards shot and killed six local residents; a prisoner who helped a prison guard fish his firearm out of the water during a hunting trip drowned to his death; and also several instances of prisoners being beaten to death by the guards.

Between 2008 and 2014, at least eight prisoners and one prison guard attempted suicide in Nehe Prison.