 Many human rights groups , however , doubted the efficacy of the proposed reforms , saying that the new laws would only help minor criminals and not help political prisoners , and that the reforms would not actually abolish the re @-@ education through labor system . The Laogai Research Foundation stated that lowering the maximum length of detention and changing the names of the detention facilities would not constitute a " fundamental change " . Nine months after the declaration that the laws would be rewritten , the re @-@ education through labor system had not been abolished ; in December 2007 , a group of academics drafted an open letter to the government calling for an end to the system . During the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing , there were reports that some individuals applying for permits to protest were detained without trial ; of these , some were sentenced to re @-@ education through labor . In the United Nations Human Rights Council 's September 2008 Universal Periodic Review of the People 's Republic of China , re @-@ education through labor was listed as an " urgent human rights concern , " and as of February 2009 there remains a large number of active facilities . 
