Why Chinese Parents Allow Their Children to Be Spanked (7 photos)

Asian children are among the most addicted to gadgets; before recent laws in China, they spent the most time on smartphones. Exhausted by schoolwork, children find relief in games, which provide both dopamine and joy.







Summer Camp for the Little Ones

And to wean children off smartphones when they become unruly, Chinese parents send their children to re-education camps. The point is, they resort to very harsh measures to re-educate the children – torture, beatings, humiliation. Chinese re-education camps show truly good results, according to parents, especially for those seeking treatment for video game addiction. And such treatment isn't cheap – from 8,000 to 20,000 yuan per month.





News footage and videos about these camps

But how can you get a lazy, gadget-addicted child to run even a hundred meters? The most immediate answer that comes to mind is the correct one – threaten physical punishment. In the last year, there have been quite a few cases in the Chinese media revealing beatings of difficult teenagers by camp coaches. But the point is, parents agree to the "belt"! They themselves say they can't cope with a capricious child and consider beatings a necessary discipline measure. It's understandable – if persuasion at home hasn't worked, then a harsher form of discipline is called for.

Cruelty as an effective method of discipline?



Basically, children are taught to take care of themselves and wash their own clothes.

Cruelty in such camps is disguised as educational methods. A teacher won't come up to you and hit you directly; they'll make you run around a stadium for hours, or stand at attention in the scorching sun, or carry heavy objects while depriving you of food and water. In some camps, staff splashed chili pepper water in the children's faces. The motto is: "You must pay for your mistakes" (read: rebellion). However, these corrections cost the children their health (one boy lost his hearing from a blow to the head), and recently, their lives.



The first such camps opened quite a while ago, back in 2008.

In August 2024, a 14-year-old girl in Henan Province died after a month in a correctional facility. Her father sent her there after she refused to study. During her stay, she often stood in the sun for hours, deprived of water and food. In desperation, the girl wrote six letters to her parents asking them to pick her up, but all were intercepted by a teacher. She died in intensive care from exhaustion and electrolyte imbalance. There were also scandalous scandals involving sexual abuse by teachers. This is all because the camp rules confiscate children's phones, preventing them from texting their parents or calling the police. They are completely isolated from the outside world, but if you want, you can write a letter, which the teachers will first review. In the case of the girl's death, 180 letters were found on the camp psychologist, which he hid from the parents, depriving the children of their last hope for help.



And this is a camp for adults with internet addictions.

But the point is that China doesn't yet have a legal framework that clearly defines what punishments are acceptable and what aren't, especially after a student's parent signs a contract. But parents continue to turn to camps even after scandals, because they see it as their last chance to reintegrate their child into society.