US diplomats kept China off list of countries failing to combat slavery

Extrajudicial networks of detention facilities that use torture and forced labor are still thriving in China two years after Beijing announced an end to “re-education through labor,” Reuters reported, citing interviews with lawyers and others familiar with the facilities. Between February and April, US State Department human rights experts cited the facilities as reason to again downgrade China to a blacklist of countries failing to combat slavery, according to documents reviewed by the news agency and not previously made public–but the experts were overruled by senior American diplomats in the final Trafficking in Persons report, published on July 27.