(Broadcast on 5 April 2002)

As the Daqing oil workers’ street demonstration has already entered its 35th day, the workers retrenched with compensation still gather on Tieren (Iron man) Square every day to protest against the retrenchment policy. I tried to call the Petroleum Administration Bureau (PAB) to enquire whether they had any plans that could solve the problem; first I called the information and complaint bureau but they told me to call the publicity department.

Complaint bureau:

We can’t tell you anything about this, we can’t express any opinion; call the PAB publicity department.

Han Dongfang:

The publicity department?

Complaint bureau:

Yes, ask the publicity department.

The PAB publicity department official said:

Official:

These are things we cannot discuss with outsiders; only the PAB can give information about this situation.

Han:

Which department can give information to outsiders?

Official:

I am not sure which PAB department can give information. But the boss told me we couldn’t talk about this issue.

Han:

Just now someone in the complaint office told me to call here.

Official:

We cannot talk about this to outsiders at all; this is the provincial government’s and the party’s specific requirement.

One worker who lives quite far from the square told me that the workers in his area couldn’t afford to take a bus. Since it takes over an hour to get (to the square) on foot, the workers from this area seldom go to the demonstrations.

Worker:

The life of this lot of workers is really hard. If the vegetables are sold at cheaper price at half a kilometre away, they wouldn’t buy any around here but rather walk there to shop. They also go on foot (to the square); it takes over an hour to get there. At the beginning they went a couple of times, but they saw that it didn’t solve anything. They only got really tired from standing there, so now no one is going. It’s just too far.

A retrenched worker who lives near the square said, there were still people going to the square every day:

Worker:

There are people there every day. I walked around the block just now and I heard that some people had gone there.

Han:

Do you know how many people are there?

Worker:

I am not sure. I went two or three times but my health is not very good now, I have just come out of the hospital. We have all suffered for Daqing, we are tired and our health is gone; my rheumatism is very serious.

He added that people who were active at the beginning had all disappeared; he believed they had been arrested.

Worker:

Those who dared to speak up at the beginning have gradually disappeared. Some people say they probably got arrested.

Han:

Do you know who got arrested?

Worker:

No, I don’t. Nobody knows. They say there are a lot of plain-clothes (policemen) who follow them home (and arrest them there).

One government employee who herself had a retrenched family member told me about how persuading the workers (not to demonstrate) had affected her.

Employee:

Wherever you work, you have to take your job seriously. Although it is against my conscience to go and persuade the workers (not to demonstrate), I still have to do it. Even today, just before you called, I was making telephone calls (to this end.)

Han:

Lucky for them that there is someone to persuade them, to chat with them. But who can chat with you then?

Employee:

It is not like you and I chatting (laugh). I am so lucky today that you can talk to me. But my situation is really nothing compared to others. There are some people with grey hair at the square; they would retire in a couple of years and now they are left with nothing because of the retrenchment.

Han:

Many people are worried that this may end up like a second Tiananmen Square. Do you think (the same thing) may happen?

Employer:

I think, in my opinion, it probably will not happen. They say that all those people just go there and stand there, they don’t say anything, and they don’t make any disturbance. Would they arrest all these people?

Han:

Didn’t they say that recently all those who talked too much, wrote graffiti poems or notices were arrested one after the other?

Employee:

Yes, I have heard that they arrested over 60 people.

Someone from the audience called from Fuxin, Liaoning province and said that several thousand retired miners of the Liaoning Fuxin Mining Bureau blocked a railway in the proximity of the Fuxin railway station to demonstrate against the low remuneration and insecurity of livelihood. A Fuxin railway station employee reaffirmed the news:

Worker:

It seems they are retired miners.

Han:

From the Fuxin Mining Bureau?

Worker:

Yes. A lot of city police and armed police had come. When the train came they pushed people off the rails to the two sides of the railway, so it did not effect the transportation.

Han:

How many people were there then?

Worker:

A lot of people, several thousand people were there at the eastern railway road. I was on duty on that day. We workers didn’t get a chance to go, we were on duty and couldn’t leave our posts so we couldn’t even go and have a look; it’s pretty far from here. In any case, a lot of police and armed police cars had come.When I asked what it was all about, I was told that retired workers stopped the train or something like that. It was on the second day of the second month (of the lunar calendar, it’s 15 March on Western calendar), on the day of Long Tai Tou [the dragon raises its head].