BY EVA CHENG
In late December, two leaders who took part in organising a 17,000-strong workers' protest last March in Liaoyang, Liaoning province, and have been in detention ever since, were charged with "subversion". They could be executed if convicted.
Yao Fuxin and Xiao Yunliang are expected to face trial in January after the Liaoyang court accepted the new charges against them, according to Yao's lawyer Mo Shaoping, speaking to the January 7 Hong Kong-based China Labour Bulletin.
The CLB also reported that the families of Yao and Xiao have been visited every day by the Public Security Bureau (the police) since January 4 and warned not to take part in any public protests to press for their release. Xiao's wife told the CLB that she had received similar warnings from the police ever since Xiao's initial arrest. She vowed to launch a public fight for the detainees' release. Her home phone line has been cut off.
The protest that the leaders were involved in took place March 11-12. Yao was arrested on March 17. Following a demonstration to press for Yao's release, Xiao and two other worker activists — Pang Qingxiang and Wang Zhaoming — were arrested on March 20. According to the CLB, they have been denied access to lawyers ever since and no formal charges were laid against them for the first seven months of their detention. Informally, they were being held for "illegal assembly, marches and protests".
On December 19, the CLB reported that Zhang Junjiu, deputy chair of the pro-government All China Federation of Trade Unions, accused Yao of carrying out car bombings and denied he was arrested for organising workers. In a reply to a UN working group on arbitrary detention, Beijing said Yao was arrested for "planning, instigating and carrying out a number of destructive activities". After nine months in detention, Wang and Pang were released on bail on December 20. But Wang "disappeared" days later following a routine required visit to the local police station. During his brief release, Wang explained to the CLB why the March protests were held: "We [were] only asking for our back pay. This is reasonable and legal in every sense. It is our hard-earned money... The government has done nothing despite our numerous petitions. We were left with no option but to take to the streets."
A January 1, a BBC report said that the Ferro-Alloy Factory, where the "Liaoyang Four" worked, was suspected to have been embezzled by its managers. As well as wages being in arrears, promised pensions were also left undelivered.
In a separate development, the BBC reported on December 11 that more than 2000 unemployed textile workers in Jiamusi, northern Heilongjiang province, had protested in early December in response to undelivered social security payments, which the workers believe have been embezzled by officials. More than a dozen protesters were arrested.
From Green Left Weekly, January 15, 2003.
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