24 October 2003

China Labour Bulletin has just learned that both Xiao Yunliang and Yao Fuxin’s health and well-being have deteriorated rapidly since their move to Lingyuan prison.

The families of both men were able to visit the two prisoners on 22 October after their transfer to Lingyuan and found them to be in very low spirits. Their hopes of surviving their prison sentences are diminishing daily due to the lack of medical treatment they are receiving and the seriousness of their underlying medical conditions. According to close sources both men have expressed their belief that they will die in Lingyuan.

Xiao Yunliang is now so ill and blind that he has been denied exercise rights as there are no guards available to lead him around the exercise yard. He spends all of his time in his cell which he shares with three other men. During the visit, Xiao Yunliang was found to have a very swollen face and arms and has developed high blood pressure and some form of heart disease in addition to his existing illnesses.

Yao Fuxin has also deteriorated and has already lost consciousness twice since his move to Lingyuan over two weeks ago. The guards reportedly told his family that he too is being denied exercise as they are worried that the next time he loses consciousness they may not be able to reach him in time to resuscitate him and he may die. The prison is reportedly unable to give more than just basic medication.

Additionally CLB has learned that while in Jinzhou prison, Xiao Yunliang suffered from beatings from other prisoners in his cell at Jinzhou prison after encouragement from their guard. After confronting the guard about his role in the beating, Xiao Yunliang was placed in solitary confinement for 15 days and denied a family visit. During his solitary confinement Xiao was placed in foot and hand shackles.

Both families are hoping that the men can be released on medical bail and failing that that they may be transferred to a prison with better facilities. Although the guards at Lingyuan appear to be sympathetic, there is little they can do to help the men in their current state of health.

We are urging people to write urgent appeals to the prison governor at Lingyuan asking for the two men to be released on medical parole.

In addition we are asking people to write letters of support direct to the two men at Lingyuan prison. This important show of solidarity would help raise the two men’s spirits and also demonstrate the global support for their release. While it is not certain that the two men will be given these letters, it has been our experience that letters written to prisoners in jail can have a beneficial effect on prison treatment and may result in their early release or at the very least an increase in the medical care given to them.

We urge you to write to the prison governor at;

Lingyuan Jianyu Zhang
Prison Governor)
Lingyuan di er Jianyu
Liaoningsheng
122500
People’s Republic of China

In your letters please state that:

Both Yao Fuxin and Xiao Yunliang are guilty of nothing more than attempting to peacefully exercise their rights to freedom of expression and association and that both men should be released immediately and without restrictions;

That failing release, both men should be given immediate medical parole to enable them to obtain medical treatment for their illnesses;

That the heath and well being of both men must be protected from ill treatment and torture and that both men must receive immediate and adequate medical treatment;

You can also send a copy of letters you write to the prison governor to the Chinese Embassy or Consulate in your own country

Should you receive a response from the authorities please do send CLB a copy.

Letters to Xiao Yunliang and Yao Fuxin

Please write to

Yao Fuxin:
Yuzheng Zhishu di er Dadui
Lingyuan di er Jianyu
122500
People’s Republic of China

Xiao Yunliang
Lingyuan di er Jianyu
Liaoningsheng
122500
People's republic of China

In your letters express your concern for their detention, ill treatment and health as well as reassuring them that international trade unionists and thousands of ordinary citizens are aware of their plight and are demanding their immediate release.

For more details please see our press release of 14 October and see below for a summary of medical concerns

Health Condition

Yao Fuxin: According to the latest reliable reports, Yao Fuxin's health is much worse than was previously believed. His family visited him at Jinzhou Prison on 24 September, and found him in the hospital ward. He had been suffering intermittent heart failure for several months (possibly of the kind known as "transient ischemic attacks", or TIAs), and he collapsed while in the shower in September 2003 and only revived after prolonged emergency resuscitation by the prison staff. Yao also has extremely high blood pressure (190 / 130), and prior to his 8 October transfer to Lingyuan Prison he was having his blood pressure checked twice daily by prison medical staff. Yao has great difficulty walking, due to an old injury he sustained in 2000. As a result of all his enforced inactivity in prison over the past 18 months, the sole of his foot has atrophied it is apparently too painful for him to put any weight on the sole of his foot. Finally, Yao's right eardrum has collapsed (in Chinese: "ermo taxian"), and he can only hear with great difficulty.

Xiao Yunliang: Reports from January 2003 onwards indicated that Xiao had been coughing violently in the detention centre where he had been held prior to his and Yao’s trial, but the family have now learned that in April he was put on intravenous drip of some kind for two weeks. He has now been diagnosed with full-blown pleurisy (an infection of the membrane lining of the lungs.) Xiao has great difficulty in speaking and he suffers from frequent stabbing chest pains. Xiao Yunliang’s eyes are also in extremely bad condition. On April 17 he was diagnosed by police doctors as being virtually blind in both eyes. At Lingyuan he has been diagnosed with high blood pressure and heart disease.

Background

Yao and Xiao were tried in January 2003 on wholly unsubstantiated charges of “subverting state power,” after their role in leading the peaceful mass worker demonstrations in Liaoyang in March 2002. On 9 May they were handed down prison sentences of seven and four years respectively. Their appeals were subsequently rejected by a higher court

Lingyuan Prison is a huge penal colony located close to the province’s border with Inner Mongolia . Many political dissidents arrested after the 4 June 1989 nationwide crackdown on the Tiananmen pro-democracy movement were held at Lingyuan Prison, and numerous confirmed reports emerging from the prison at that time indicated that the prison was one of the most brutal in the whole of China. Political prisoners there were regularly beaten, shocked with high-voltage electric batons, and placed in tiny solitary confinement cells for long periods of time for the slightest perceived “infringement” of prison rules.