Chinese teenagers sent to strict military training camp for bullying

The 14 girls have all been convicted for bullying people at school and sentenced to up to 18 months in prison

There are growing concerns in China about incidents of extreme bullying in schools (Getty)

Chinese teenagers have been sentenced to time in military-style training camps for bullying under a trial scheme introduced in the south of the country.

The 14 girls, aged between 15 and 17, were all convicted and given suspended sentences for bullying their school peers by Tongzhou District People’s Court in Beijing. One student was given a 18 month sentence suspended for two years.

But the teenagers were also ordered to take part in a re-education camp, run jointly by the court and local schools, which focuses on gruelling military-style training to reinforce discipline for a week before the school decides whether they are fit to return to school or be expelled, local news website The Mirror reported.

Pictures from the camp show the girls forced to practice military style positions such as standing straight and having to hold themselves in squat positions with hands behind their heads.

The person in charge of the scheme, Dan Wei, director of the criminal court, said all of the girls in the trial scheme have indicated they would like to return to school and the schools have agreed providing they sign an agreement to ensure their behaviour improves.

The scheme has provoked a fierce debate on Chinese social media sites such as Weibo, with some praising the move as bullying was a “social cancer”, the BBC reported.

Others said the sentence was too lenient and “not enough to make them learn their lesson”.

But some doubted the training would have the desired effect as the girls would come back with stronger bodies and “will only bully more”.

Others said the scheme was too harsh. One student said they thought “military training will be a really painful thing”, while another user wondered "how do kids nowadays see this? I feel sorry for them".

The move is part of a response to growing concerns in China about incidents of extreme bullying in schools that have surfaced in recent months.

Videos of victims being stripped naked and beaten or being made to kneel and being kicked in the face in school have been uploaded to Weibo in the past year.

Under current child protection laws in China, children under the age of 16 cannot be given serious punishment by the courts unless it is for a capital offence such as murder.