China's government is continuing with its system of state-sanctioned kidnapping, legalised in 2012, that it is using against thousands of people every year.
The Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location (RSDL) is a powerful tool used by the police to primarily coerce confessions and break people’s spirits while a case is “built” against them.
The system, which has been condemned by the UN as tantamount to enforced disappearances, allows for up to six months detention in a secret location where the prisoner has no access to the outside world. And that includes a lawyer, never mind a family member.
They are typically confined to a room, with no access to sunlight, and under 24-hour surveillance, which includes being watched while asleep and going to the bathroom. In such conditions, RSDL detainees are under extreme risk of physical and psychological torture.
RSDL is often only the beginning.