A five-member mission sent by the Paris-based International Labour Solidarity Alliance to extend their solidarity and concern for the struggle waged by workers in Liaoyang city in the northeastern province of Liaoning has been turned back by the Chinese government. In the afternoon of 26 May, 2002, when the mission arrived in Liaoyang and were on their way to the Liaoyang Ferroalloy Factory, the five French unionists were stopped and detained by local Public Security Bureau officers. They were intending to visit workers who have been staging a two-month long protest against retrenchment and who have seen four of their leaders arrested. The delegation were put in a police van and driven back to the provincial capital, Shenyang. On the morning of 27 May, the police put the group onto a train for Beijing.

The delegation arrived in Hong Kong on 28 May and held a press conference.

(Source: China Labour Bulletin)