A former college student "village official" who was forced to undergo re-education through labor for spreading negative posts online again found himself in the spotlight on Sunday after he reportedly passed the national judicial examination.
Ren Jianyu, 28, obtained 415 points on this year's national judicial examination, which he told The Beijing News he took to become a lawyer.
Ren became a village official in Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality after graduating from college in 2009. He was detained by local police in August 2011 for "spreading negative information and inciting the subversion of State power." On September 23, 2011, he was deprived of his freedom and put in the re-education through labor program, known as laojiao in Chinese, which allows police to detain people for up to four years without an open trial. Ren was scheduled to remain in the program for two years.
His case prompted nationwide criticism and calls for the system to be scrapped. After 15 months of re-education, Ren was released in November 2012, after local authorities determined the punishment was inappropriate.
According to The Beijing News, since being freed, Ren has reposted politics-related posts on Sina Weibo, identifying himself as a former college student village official. He quit his job in the legal office of a private enterprise to prepare for the judicial examination.
The controversial re-education system was officially slated for abolition in an announcement by the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee in early November 2013.
