abstract:Custody and repatriation (Chinese: 收容遣送; Pinyin: shōuróng qiǎnsòng) (C&R) was an administrative procedure, established in 1982 and ended in 2003, by which the police in the People's Republic of China (usually cities) could detain people if they did not have a residence permit (hukou) or temporary living permit (zanzhuzheng), and return them to the place where they could legally live or work (usually rural areas). At times the requirement included possession of a valid national identity card.
Yet the failure to match the end of CustodyandRepatriation with a wholesale prohibition on arbitrary detention mitigated the benefits of its abolition.
It was similarly discredited and abolished after a series of abuses, the last straw being the beating and death of a young man in a CustodyandRepatriation center in Guangzhou in March 2003.
Migrant workers who had been prey for the system benefited from its abolition, but local governments soon found new ways to deal with the other category of people detained in CustodyandRepatriation centers -- petitioners.