Xiao Yunliang, a leader of Liaoyang Ferroalloy Factory workers, was released on 23 February after being imprisoned for four years on charges of "conducting an illegal assembly and demonstration. Xiao and another worker activist Yao Fuxin, who is still serving a seven-year imprisonment and is not due for release until March 2009, led around 2,000 workers from Liaoyang Ferroalloy Factory along with a further 15,000 workers from five other factories in Liaoyang in a series of large public demonstrations in March 2002. [For further information, see: Xiao Yunliang freed 24 days before jail sentence ends [2]]

On 1 March, China Labour Bulletin interviewed Xiao's daughter, Xiao Yu, and the content of the interview is as follows:

CLB: Has your father been released?
Xiao Yu: Yes, 23 February.

CLB: Is he at home at the moment, or…?
Xiao Yu: He's at home.

CLB: He's recovering at home, right?
Xiao Yu: Yes.

CLB: Do you know the current situation of Yao Fuxin?
Xiao Yu: No, I don't know.

CLB: You don't know about that, right? You didn't hear anything about whether he's been released too?
Xiao Yu: No. His jail term is seven years. My father's jail term is going to end soon. It should be about another 21 days before it ends.

CLB: So, your father was released after having served the full jail term?
Xiao Yu: Yes.

CLB: We would like to do a short interview with your father. Is it possible for us to do that?
Xiao Yu: No, sorry. Formally speaking, the date of his release should be on 19 March. If you want to interview him, I think it's better for you to do that after that day.

CLB: So, are you suggesting that we should interview him after 19 March, right?
Xiao Yu: Yes. If you want (to know) what happened in the last two days, I can tell you.

CLB: Then, how's the situation there? What's the nature of his release? He's going to be formally released on 19 March…?
Xiao Yu: Yes, you can say he's conditionally released.

CLB: Conditionally released? That means he's conditionally released for one month before he's formally released?
Xiao Yu: Less than one month. The date of his formal release is 19 March. It's soon.

CLB: Is your father alright after his release?
Xiao Yu: Oh! My father's health is bad. Last night, he was so irritated by the public security officers. You know, there are some public security officers staying outside our home after my father returned home. Our house has two doors, one big and the other small. Our home is a small guesthouse and we always have few guests. On the day before my father's release, two child hawkers came to stay at our home. Some police officers were watching us. They talked to everyone who entered our house. They asked them what they were doing and checked their identity documents.

CLB: So, has it affected your guesthouse's business?
Xiao Yu: Yes, in fact only these two guests are staying at our guesthouse. The police didn't ask them just once or twice. They ask and check them every time they go out or come back from meals or work. Last night, I went out to tell the police officers that if they continue doing that, nobody will come to our guesthouse. I asked them if they wanted us to live. I told them: "We can't live like this." They replied: "You can't live like this? There's a six-storey building at the back. If you can't live like this, you can jump from there."

CLB: The public security officers said that to you?
Xiao Yu: Yes, they pointed out the six-storey building behind our house and they asked if I wanted to jump from there.

CLB: Then, they're wrong. They shouldn't talk to ordinary citizens like that.
Xiao Yu: Yeah, I just can't understand it. Why do they treat us like that? They want to threaten us or what? We thought about that last night. We couldn't figure out whether it's just the problem of the police officers or the problem of the Public Security Bureau. We now feel threatened. We don't know how we can live like this. My father is released from prison. He is freer to move around at home than in prison, but nothing more than that.

CLB: How's your father's health?
Xiao Yu: Last night, my father also went out with me to argue with the police officers. When they asked us to jump from the building, my father was so furious that he lost his breath and when he went to bed last night, he couldn't breathe well. He feels a bit better today.

CLB: If your father feels sick now, does he have any medical insurance or something like that?
Xiao Yu: I don't know about that. He always felt sick in the prison. He had intrahepatic duct stones in his liver, a cyst on his right kidney and he suffers from chronic superficial gastritis. He got tuberculosis when he was held in the detention centre. But at that time, the officers at the detention centre did not tell us about that. Two years ago, when the Shenyang Number Two Prison arranged a medical examination for him and to check his eye problem, my father was found to have tuberculosis. But it was too late. He was found to have calcified lungs. He coughed heavily after he returned home. He's alright during the daytime, but he coughs heavily at night. I originally wanted to bring him to see the doctor, but there are so many police officers outside. You know, they ask and check everyone who goes in and out of our home, including me. Their attitude is so bad.

CLB: How many of them are staying outside your home?
Xiao Yu: They take turns. They're from the public security bureau. Two cars – one is staying outside the large door and the other outside the smaller door. Two persons in each car. Four of them in total. They take turns around the clock.

CLB: Do you need to pay your father's medical treatment bills or you can get some kind of medical welfare?
Xiao Yu: Nobody has ever told us anything about medical welfare. We have to pay the bills ourselves.

2 March 2006