China is using laws that allow detention without trial to “clean up” Beijing before next year’s Olympics in violation of its vow to improve human rights, Amnesty International said.

The authorities are using the “Re-education Through Labor” law that allows a person to be detained for as long as four years without charge, trial, or judicial review to clear the city’s streets, the London-based group said in a report.

Improving Beijing’s image “through extending detention without trial raises serious questions about the commitment Chinese officials have made to improve their human rights record at the awarding of the Games to China,” Catherine Baber, head of Amnesty’s Asia-Pacific program, said in a statement.

Beijing is undergoing a $65 billion face-lift that includes a new airport terminal, subway lines, and roads as it prepares for the Olympics. The communist country will use the Games to showcase itself at a time when economic growth of 10% a year is increasing China’s global influence.

Hundreds of thousands of people may be held in RTL centers, many in harsh conditions, Amnesty said in the report.

The law is used by the Chinese police against “petty criminals,” government critics and followers of banned spiritual movements for “offenses not serious enough to be punished under criminal law,” the group said.

Meanwhile, China’s foreign ministry summoned America’s ambassador, Clark Randt, yesterday to protest after Congress gave Tibet’s spiritual leader the Dalai Lama its highest civilian award. “We’re asking the U.S. government to take serious measures to correct this issue,” Liu Jianchao, the ministry’s spokesman said at a regular press conference in Beijing yesterday, without giving details.

In other related news, the Associated Press is reporting that China might not have a permanent presence in space yet, but the country’s rocket men are already thinking about setting up a Communist Party branch in the outer reaches.