Relieving pressure on overcrowded national prisons by employing convicts as laborers at Chinese-run projects in the developing world is a novel strategy China has adopted — an approach that is certain to create new backlashes against Chinese businesses overseas, besides highlighting the country's egregious human-rights record.
In addition to being the world's biggest executioner, China has one of the largest prison populations in the world. The 2009 "World Prison Population List" compiled by the International Center for Prison Studies at King's College, London, put the total number of inmates in Chinese jails at 1.57 million.