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China: Free jailed labour activists, stop suppressing labour organizations!
In partnership with the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions and Globalization Monitor |
Since 3 December, the authorities in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong have carried out a coordinated and wide-ranging crackdown on labour rights activists and labour organizations in the province.
More than 25 people from at least four labour organizations have been taken away and questioned by the police. At least seven of them have been criminally detained or are being held in currently uncertain whereabouts. Those five who are being put under criminal detention on charges include: Zeng Feiyang, the director of Panyu Workers' Centre and labour organizer Zhu Xiaomei; labour activist He Xiaobo, who runs a group in Foshan called Nanfeiyan that helps injured workers; Activist Peng Jiayong, the founder of a workers' self-help group, and another labour activist Deng Xiaoming. The authorities have prevented lawyers from meeting any of the detained. Labour activist Meng Han is being detained at Guangzhou City No. 1 Detention Centre, although the criminal detention notice is not yet issued. Activist Tang Jian is also known to be taken away by the police, but his location and charges are unclear. The police have continued to harass and intimidate the family members and friends of the detained activists and prevented them from giving media interviews. In May 2015, the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau detained labour activist Liu Shaoming and denied his rights to meet with his lawyer, saying that he has been charged with "inciting subversion of state power".