In 2012, China passed revisions to its Criminal Procedure Law. Among the changes was an article dealing with “residential surveillance in a designated location” (RSDL) for those suspected of “crimes of endangering state security, terrorist activities, or especially serious bribery cases.” The dry legal language masked the brutal reality experienced by those who would later suffer through RSDL — it is a legalized form of enforced disappearance, marked by physical and psychological torture. The People’s Republic of the Disappeared, edited by Michael Caster, collects the stories of activists and lawyers who suffered through RSDL. As Caster explains, “These stories recount the experience of RSDL from the perspective and in the words of its victims.”
