Since 1999, hundreds of thousands - if not millions - of Falun Gong practitioners have been arbitrarily imprisoned and put in labour camps without legal procedure, making them among the world's largest group of political prisoners. In many Chinese detention centres, Falun Gong practitioners constitute the vast majority. Every citizen in China can be deported to a prison camp with a simple signature by the police, that is, without any kind of trial or the ability to defend themselves. This so-called administrative detention is imprisonment with forced labour, and can last up to four years.

To prove their loyalty to the law to the rest of the world, China's new generation of leaders announced at the end of 2013 reform to the labour camp system, and even completely abolishing it. But following this news, came nothing but an uninterrupted stream of reports of arbitrary arrests and torture. Sentences to forced labour seem to have reduced, however the number of Falun Gong practitioners sentenced to up to ten years imprisonment in show trials has increased dramatically.