February 15, 2003

Yao Fuxin, 54, a representative of workers who staged massive protests in Liaoyang City this March, was secretly detained by plain-clothes security officers on March 17. Despite repeated appeals for his release by fellow Liaoyang workers, Yao remains in custody in the Tieling Detention Center, 120 miles from Liaoyang. Following Yao’s detention, authorities notified his family that he was receiving treatment for a heart attack and other health problems, raising speculation that he has been severely mistreated in custody.

For several years, Yao has been involved in the struggle of Liaoyang workers against corruption that they believe has led to a string of plant closures and bankruptcies and has left many factories with insufficient money to pay wages, pensions and severance packages, as well as putting thousands of out of work. A former worker at the Liaoyang Steel Rolling Mill, in 1998 Yao was one of a group of 10 workers who traveled to Beijing to petition central authorities against corruption in the city, to no avail.

One of the focal points of the concern over corruption has been the Ferro-Alloy Factory, where Yao’s wife, Guo Xiujing, was an employee. Worker activists attributed the bankruptcy of the factory in 2001 to corruption among its directors, and many employees were owed back wages, while those made redundant were offered derisory compensation. Yao was among those who attempted to organize an independent audit of the Ferro-Alloy Factory’s accounts. This and other matters had been the subject of a series of appeals to higher authorities in which Yao had been involved, all of which were ignored.

The anger that had been simmering among workers in Liaoyang appears to have boiled over after the head of the city’s Municipal People’s Congress, Gong Shangwu, said at the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress in Beijing at the beginning of March that there was “no unemployment” in Liaoyang and that the city guaranteed a minimum living allowance of 280 yuan to all those without a source of income.

In response, on March 11 and 12, 2002, workers staged a demonstration in front of local government offices. Yao was among the protesters, along with 2,000 workers from the Ferro-Alloy Factory as well as approximately 15,000 workers from other local factories, including Liaoyang Textile Factory, Piston Factory, Instruments Factory, Leather Factory and Precision Tool Factory. The protesters demanded the resignation of Gong Shangwu, claiming he had failed to represent workers’ interests effectively, and demanded that the government guarantee them a basic livelihood. Yao also penned four letters, to Jiang Zemin, Bo Xilai, the governor of Liaoning Province, the Liaoyang City government and to the general public. After these complaints were ignored, Yao and others began coordinating workers from over 20 factories for another mass demonstration. Then on March 17, Yao was detained a mile away from his home. Initially, the authorities denied that they were holding him.

On March 18, over 40,000 workers from more than 20 factories protested against Yao’s detention and demanded that he be released immediately . The protestors were from a number of plants in the city, including the Ferro-Alloy Factory, the Textile Factory, the Piston Factory, the Instruments Factory, the Leather Factory, the Precision Tool Factory, the Cardboard Factory, the Printing Factory, the Liquefied Gas Canning Factory, the Pressing and Forging Factory, Shoushan Machinery Factory and Qingyang Petrochemicals Factory. A demonstration held two days later led to the arrest of three more men, all leaders of the Ferro-Alloy workers, Pang Qingxiang, 58, Xiao Yunliang, 57, and Wang Zhaoming, 39. On March 29, Yao and the other detainees were formally charged with “gathering a crowd to disrupt social order,” a crime punishable by imprisonment under Article 290(1) of the Chinese Criminal Code.

On March 30, the arrest of the four workers’ representatives was formally announced. Yao’s family was notified that he had been hospitalized after suffering a heart attack. Police reportedly sent the hospital 10,000 yuan to cover Yao’s treatment, but repeatedly refused his family’s requests to visit him. Finally on April 11, Guo Xiujing was permitted to see her husband after he was transferred from the hospital to Tieling Detention Center. Guo said Yao’s right side was numb, his right hand shook and his right leg was weak, indicating that he may have suffered a stroke. Guo requested that Yao be released on medical parole or be sent to hospital, but her request has been ignored.

Following the demonstrations in March, the Liaoyang City government has promised to offer economic concessions to the workers if the demonstrations stop. However, Yao Fuxin and the three other workers’ representatives are still being detained and reportedly their families cannot afford to hire legal representation for them.


JOSEPH CHANEY

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