Labour activists Yao Fuxin and Xiao Yunliang, imprisoned since May 2003, have both recently suffered a sharp decline in physical condition. Both men are in urgent need of proper medical care and treatment.

The two workers' leaders were sentenced to seven years and four years terms on 9 May 2003 on charges of subversion. They were detained after leading peaceful worker demonstrations in Liaoyang City, Liaoning Province, in northeastern China in March 2002. At that time, thousands of workers from more than 20 factories in the city rallied against corruption among local officials and demanded a basic living allowance for laid-off workers, fulfilment of pension programme, and payment of wages long in arrears. (For further information about the two labour activists, click: The Liaoyang Protest Movement of 2002-03, and the Arrest, Trial and Sentencing of the "Liaoyang Two" [2], The Liaoyang Two: Personal Profiles [3], and A List of Imprisoned Labour Rights Activists in China [4])

Yao Fuxin, who suffers heart disease, suffered a heart attack on the evening of August 6. He was sent to Lingyuan Public Security Bureau Hospital, and his family was informed of his condition the same evening. They made the six hour trip from their home in Liaoyang to the hospital in Lingyuan, arriving there at midnight. They were allowed to meet him in his ward the next morning. Yao was breathing with the help of a life support system and receiving glucose intravenously. After their visit, Yao's family returned to Liaoyang. Guards on duty at the hospital refused to give the family the telephone numbers of the hospital or the prison, family members said.

Yao's family went to visit him in Lingyuan Number 2 Prison again on 8 September. According to Yao's daughter, Yao Dan, her father was hospitalized for about 20 days before being sent back to the prison in late August. During his stay in the hospital, Yao suffered from severe high blood pressure, measuring over 200/100 mmHg (millimetres of mercury). His heart attack in early August also damaged his vision and hearing, which had deteriorated further and due to his weakened circulation, he suffered from numbness in his legs. The medical staff at the hospital told him that he would also suffer debilitating side effects from the blood pressure medicine, so he stopped taking it after leaving the hospital.

Yao's family has been fighting for a retrial of Yao's case with the assistance of lawyer Mo Shaoping, but the Liaoning Provincial Higher People's Court has yet to announce their decision. Yao's prison term will end in March 2009, but we are concerned that he might not be able to survive due to his weakening heart and high blood pressure.

Xiao Yunliang was found to be suffering arteriosclerosis during a medical check-up made last summer. He also has intrahepatic duct stones in his liver and cyst in his right kidney, and he suffers from chronic superficial gastritis. He has become blind in one eye due to conjunctivitis. He does not receive any medical treatment in prison, with the exception of pills for stomach-aches which he gets from the prison staff when he finds the pain unbearable. Xiao's wife has said she is worried that his physical condition could be so poor by the time he is released in March 2006, that he would be by then too weak to undergo any medical treatment. She is reportedly so distressed by his worsening physical health that she has become forgetful, depressed and unable to carry out her daily family chores without assistance from her daughter.

Once again, China Labour Bulletin, together with the international labour movement, appeals to the compassion of the Chinese authorities to release Yao and Xiao immediately on medical grounds.

Please click here [http://www.clb.org.hk/en/node/7217 [5]] and sign the letter calling for their immediate release.

14 September 2005