Many hundreds of workers have been detained and sentenced to long prison terms throughout China simply for trying to promote and protect their rights.
Those who try to form unions or informal groups to protect the rights and interest of their co-workers find themselves the particular subject of harsh intimidation and repression. Unofficial unions are quickly suppressed and the leaders imprisoned.
Many worker activists are charged with “subverting state power” through their activities of “organizing illegal demonstrations”.
One example is that of Yao Fuxin and Xiao Yunliang, two workers detained after mass protests in Liaoyang in March 2002 against corruption and missing benefits at the Liaoyang Ferro-Alloy Factory. Yao Fuxin was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment and Xiao Yunliang to 4 years imprisonment on charges including subversion. CLB believes that Yao Fuxin and Xiao Yunliang are clearly guilty of no “crime” other than that of peacefully seeking to protect the legitimate rights of the Liaoyang workers.
Others are imprisoned simply for supporting protests or attempting to publicize events. Zhang Shanguang,a teacher and labour rights activist, was sentenced to a ten-year term of imprisonment on charges of “endangering state security” after he released to the media news of worker demonstrations in Hunan.
Di Tiangui, a retired work from Shanxi, attempted to set up a group called the “Retired Workers Association” in May 2002 to protect the rights of retired workers but was arrested and charged with subversion and the setting up of an “illegal organization”.
CLB is campaigning for the release of people like Yao Fuxin, Xiao Yunliang, Zhang Shanguang and Di Tiangui and all those people detained in China for the peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of expression and association
Those who try to form unions or informal groups to protect the rights and interest of their co-workers find themselves the particular subject of harsh intimidation and repression. Unofficial unions are quickly suppressed and the leaders imprisoned.
Many worker activists are charged with “subverting state power” through their activities of “organizing illegal demonstrations”.
One example is that of Yao Fuxin and Xiao Yunliang, two workers detained after mass protests in Liaoyang in March 2002 against corruption and missing benefits at the Liaoyang Ferro-Alloy Factory. Yao Fuxin was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment and Xiao Yunliang to 4 years imprisonment on charges including subversion. CLB believes that Yao Fuxin and Xiao Yunliang are clearly guilty of no “crime” other than that of peacefully seeking to protect the legitimate rights of the Liaoyang workers.
Others are imprisoned simply for supporting protests or attempting to publicize events. Zhang Shanguang,a teacher and labour rights activist, was sentenced to a ten-year term of imprisonment on charges of “endangering state security” after he released to the media news of worker demonstrations in Hunan.
Di Tiangui, a retired work from Shanxi, attempted to set up a group called the “Retired Workers Association” in May 2002 to protect the rights of retired workers but was arrested and charged with subversion and the setting up of an “illegal organization”.
CLB is campaigning for the release of people like Yao Fuxin, Xiao Yunliang, Zhang Shanguang and Di Tiangui and all those people detained in China for the peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of expression and association
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