Soft detention (''Simplified Chinese:'' 软禁, ''Traditional Chinese:'' 軟禁, ''Pinyin:'' ruǎnjìn) is a form of
house arrest
In justice and law, house arrest (also called home confinement, home detention, or, in modern times, electronic monitoring) is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to their residence. Travel is usually restricted, if all ...
used in the
People's Republic of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
to control political dissidents. It has its roots in the practices of the Chinese Empire which employed it as early as the
Northern Song Dynasty
Northern may refer to the following:
Geography
* North, a point in direction
* Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe
* Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States
* Northern Province, Sri Lanka
* Northern Range, a ra ...
when those such as
Su Shi
Su Shi (; 8 January 1037 – 24 August 1101), courtesy name Zizhan (), art name Dongpo (), was a Chinese calligrapher, essayist, gastronomer, pharmacologist, poet, politician, and travel writer during the Song dynasty. A major personality of ...
who criticized the
emperor
An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...
were subjected to it. Traditionally, and in modern practice, there are three levels of restriction; the loosest, "juzhu", restricts the detainee to their home district. This restriction was employed on the history teacher
Yuan Tengfei Yuan Tengfei (; born February 8, 1972, in Beijing), is a historian, and was a history teacher in the People's Republic of China. His fans gave him the nickname "the most awesome history teacher in history" for his entertaining and comedic lectures, ...
who included information about banned aspects of modern Chinese history in his lectures. The second level, "anzhi", employed anciently on Su Shi, restricts the prisoner to their home, but they may be allowed to go for a walk or go to work. The severest form, "bianguan", which was imposed on the human rights activist
Chen Guangcheng
Chen Guangcheng (born November 12, 1971) is a Chinese civil rights activist who has worked on human rights issues in rural areas of the People's Republic of China. Blind from an early age and self-taught in the law, Chen is frequently describe ...
involves limited movement of the prisoner to their home, constant surveillance, restriction of contact with others, and, sometimes, harassment.
Notes
External links
New_York_Times_video_of_the_escape_of_Chen_Guangcheng_from_house_arrest.html" ;"title="Chen Guangcheng">New York Times video of the escape of Chen Guangcheng
from house arrest">Chen Guangcheng">New York Times video of the escape of Chen Guangcheng
from house arrest
{{China prisons
Imprisonment and detention
Penal system in China