The Problem with China’s Latest Anti-Mafia Crackdown

“Strike at mafia forces” and “make the people feel safer” – these seem like unobjectionable goals for China’s latest crackdown against organized crime, set to run through 2021. Expand A “tiger chair” specially designed to restrain detainees. Former detainees say that police often strap them into these metal chairs for hours and even days, depriving detainees of sleep, and immobilizing them until their legs and buttocks were swollen. © 2014 Private But the campaigns are often ridden with abuses. As prominent lawyer Zhang Lei, who has represented many people accused of mafia dealings, put…

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