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 China’s new Premier Li Keqiang has signalled his government is prepared to start the process of reforming the widely-despised system of re-education camps. The camps, a gulag-type network created half a century ago, hold thousands of inmates who are made to undergo “laojiao”, also known as “re-education through labour”.

But the case of one woman, Tang Hui, sent to a camp last year, galvanised public opposition to the system. Reforming it would be a significant legal step…

Her ordeal began in 2006 when her 10-year-old daughter disappeared from home. Unbeknown to Tang Hui, the girl had been raped and then lured to a local karaoke centre by a man she’d met. There she was gang raped again by four men, beaten and forced to work as a prostitute…

Like all of those sent to labour camps Tang Hui went through no legal process. There was just a written order and she was shut away. Her lawyers used the internet to spread word of her incarceration. It caused uproar and she was released after nine days…

“After my re-education I realised my mistake,” she says. “I’d pursued justice for my daughter because I thought the Communist Party was there for me. I thought the government and police would back me up. But I don’t believe that any more. They’ve treated me like an enemy. They attack us instead of protecting us.”

Tiny cracks in the dam.