CHINA: Repression escalates as protests do

November 24, 2004
Issue 

More mass actions and workers' protests have erupted in China, releasing pent-up anger over further erosion of the workers' and peasants' living conditions. And the government has responded with severe repression.

Up to 100,000 peasants in the Hanyuan County in Sichuan province have clashed with police since October 27, trying to stop the damming of the nearby Dadu River for a hydroelectric project. The dam will flood their homes and their fertile farm land. The government is trying to relocate them to an area with poor cultivation prospects, promising only meagre compensation. The family of former premier Li Peng reportedly controls the Guodian Group, the state power firm running the project.

Three peasants were reportedly killed and scores injured during the protests that continued through two cold nights. According to Hong Kong's Apple Daily, 60,000 protesters returned to the site on November 3 to again block the damming.

According to the November 8 Southern Capital Daily, about 1000 workers from a whitegoods plant in Guangdong protested outside the factory gate early on November 7, demanding an increase in the basic wage, one day off a week and to be paid on time.

In Baotou, Inner Mongolia, about 3500 retired workers from various factories have been protesting repeatedly for a better pension since November 2 outside the Communist Party of China and municipal government building, according to the November 12 China Labour Bulletin.

According to China Labor Watch, workers from Nanjing's Number 26 Scentific Instruments Factory have protested for more than 10 days since mid-October against the planned privatisation of their plant. Banners highlighted that enterprise and Communist Party officials lined their pockets from privatisation.

According to the Asian Wall Street Journal on November 5, more than 2000 people gathered outside the Fu'an City government offices in Fujian province to demand the release of fellow protesters who were detained earlier. Residents alleged the local government has illegally occupied their farmland and pay them only pathetic compensation.

According to the People's Net website <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn>, some 3000 teachers from the Ning County of Gansu province issued a public letter on November 1 pressing for their 2000 wages to be paid, four years later. The county's current wages in arrear total 13 million yuan.

Meanwhile, the seven-week strike of nearly 7000 textile workers in Xianyang City in Shaanxi province ended after more than 20 activists were arrested, according to the November 2 Agence France-Presse. The factory was recently privatised and offered to re-employ the workers at much reduced conditions. Many workers, most of them women, suffered poor health from long years toiling in their poorly regulated workplace. The workers were also fighting for the right to organise themselves, rather than being a branch of the Beijing-controlled All China Trade Union Federation.

In Dongguan, Guangdong province, 10 workers who took part in a 1000-strong April 23 protest at a Taiwanese-owned shoe factory were sentenced in late October to jail for up to three years each on unsubstantiated property damage claims, according to CLB. A regular 11-hour-a-day, six-day work week only gives the shoe workers about 450 yuan (A$78) each a month.

On October 20, two female activists at a Funing County textile factory in Yancheng City, Jiangsu province, were arrested for "disturbing social order". Both of them were workers' representatives in strikes and demonstrations to demand a better severance package. Their employer, a state firm believed to be seeking privatisation, has declared the firm bankrupt.

On November 12, Asian Labour News reported that a female garment worker in Nanjing died on November 6, in the doctor's opinion, from overwork. Her employer had increased the workers' shift from eight to 12 hours recently. The ALN also reported on a few similar cases of recent deaths.

On November 2, Human Rights in China issued an urgent appeal to call attention to the plight of Hu Shigen. Hu, a former lecturer in Beijing and an organiser of the China Freedom and Democratic Party, has been in jail for the last 13 years for his political activities that Beijing branded "counter-revolutionary".

According to HRIC, Hu is suffering from chronic migraines, intestinal illness, back pain, malnutrition and severe misalignment of his vertebrae. He still has seven years to serve in his 20-year jail sentence. His family has demanded Hu be released on medical parole.

The November 4 Washington Post quoted CPC's Outlook magazine's statement that more than 58,000 major incidents of social unrest occurred in China in 2003. This was 15% more than 2002 and 700% higher than a decade ago. In 2003, Chinese courts received nearly 4 million petitions from the public and the National People's Congress received complaints from some 20,000 petitioners.

The November 5 AWSJ quoted Shan Guanghai of the Chinese

Academy of Social Sciences as saying that Beijing plans to hold a meeting soon to discuss how the deal with the escalating protests.

From Green Left Weekly, November 24, 2004.
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