Experts: 20-year-old jail system is illegal

When police arrested actor Huang Haibo for hiring prostitutes in Beijing, his detention stretched out to six months as the authorities sought to change his bad conduct.

Huang was given half a year of "custody and education", a little known penalty reserved for offenders in sex-related cases. With "re-education through labor" having been scrapped, the semi-official detention has stirred controversy.

Huang's colleagues published an apology on Weibo, stating that Huang "would not protest or sue" in the hope of securing his early release - to no avail.