Three Chinese women were sent for a year of forced labor for refusing to buy a bus ticket, it has emerged.

Last July, Wu Chandi, Zhu Yumei, Liu Juhua were told by the “Reeducation Through Labor” committee in Changzhou, Jiangsu province that they had been sentenced to a year of education through labor, because they failed to buy tickets for the number 14 bus on a trip to Beijing during 2009. The cost of a bus ticket in the city is 1RMB ($0.15).

By Tom Hancock.
Asian Correspondent