Imprisoned Labour Activists in China: The 1989ers - Detained but
not Forgotten
Seventeen years on from the crackdown of the pro-democracy protests
in Tiananmen Square and other cities around China there are still
scores of people who remain detained for their role in the protests.
Below IHLO gives a summary of the workers involved in the protests
who are still imprisoned as well as those who were first involved
in 1989, detained and later released but who have since 1989 continued
to struggle for worker rights in China and are currently detained
for doing so.
We call upon the Chinese government to
• to release immediately and unconditionally all those
held for the peaceful exercise of fundamental human rights in connection
with the 1989 protests;
• to account for all those killed and injured and that
the victims and families involved be compensated and that the perpetrators
be brought to justice.
• to allow the Chinese people the right to freedom of
association and expression
Prisoner Details
He Chaohui何朝暉 : Railway worker / transport
He Chaohui, 45, a former railway worker at the Chenzhou Railway
Bureau, and vice-chairperson of the Hunan Workers Autonomous Federation
during the May 1989 pro-democracy movement, was sentenced to four
years’ imprisonment in 1990 for organising a strike by railway workers
in May 1989. In 1997 and 1998, He reportedly took part in several
more strikes and demonstrations and gave information on the protests
to overseas human rights groups. He was also said to have been active
at that time in forming a group to lobby for China’s signing and
ratification of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights. In April 1998, the police detained He after finding
a US$300 cheque sent to him by an American university professor.
This was seen as confirmation that he had provided overseas groups
with information about the recent workers' protests in Hunan. He
was later released due to a lack of evidence, but was then rearrested
May 1999 on the charge of “endangering state security and illegally
providing information to foreign organizations.” After a three-hour
trial the following month, He was sentenced on 24 August 1999 to
10 years’ imprisonment.
Li Wangyang李旺阳: Manual worker
Li was first arrested in June 1989 and sentenced to 13 years imprisonment
the following year on charges of “counter-revolutionary propaganda
and incitement” for founding the Shaoyang Workers' Autonomous Federation
and leading workers’ strikes during the 1989 pro-democracy movement.
He was released in June 2000, but in February 2001, he staged a
22-day hunger strike in an attempt to obtain medical compensation
for injuries to his back, heart and lungs that he had sustained
while in prison, and which reportedly left him (Li Wangyang) unable
to walk unaided. For staging the hunger-strike protest, Li was again
arrested by the police. On 5 September 2001, he was tried in secret
by the People's Intermediate Court of Shaoyang on the charge of
“incitement to subvert state power” and sentenced to a further 10
years’ imprisonment.
Liu Jian 刘健 : Machinery / Manufacturing
Liu Jian,, and Liu Zhihua 刘智华, age unknown, were both workers at
the Xiangtan Electrical Machinery Plant, Hunan Province, prior to
June 1989 and participated in a demonstration by over 1,000 workers
from the factory just after June 4 that year to protest the government’s
violent suppression of the pro-democracy movement. After one of
their fellow workers had his arm broken by the factory’s security
guards, the demonstrators then allegedly ransacked the home of the
security section chief. Arrested shortly afterwards, the two workers
were tried and sentenced to life imprisonment in either August or
October 1989 on charges of “hooliganism” and “intentional injury.”
The government has not publicly produced any evidence linking either
Liu Jian or Liu Zhihua to specific acts of violence or other genuine
crime. Two other workers from the same factory, (Chen Gang 陈刚 and
Peng Shi 彭实, also received life sentences for their involvement
in the same protest action, but the sentences were later reduced
and both men were reportedly released in 2004.) Liu Jian is apparently
the only one of the four detained Xiangtan Electrical Machinery
Plant workers who has still not had his life prison term reduced
to a fixed-term sentence. He is currently being held at the Hunan
Provincial No.6 Prison (Longxi Prison.)
Liu Zhihua 刘智华 : Machinery / Manufacturing
Formerly a worker at the Xiangtan Electrical Machinery Plant, Liu
Zhihua was sentenced to life imprisonment in October 1989 for taking
part in a mass protest against the government’s June 4 crackdown
that year on the pro-democracy movement. (For further details of
this incident and of the specific charges brought against Liu, see
the case of Liu Jian 刘健) In September 1993, his sentence was reduced
to 15 years' imprisonment with five years' subsequent deprivation
of political rights, but in 1997 his sentence was extended by five
years after he allegedly committed ''injury with intent'' in prison.
His effective combined sentence then became 16 years' imprisonment
(sentence to run from January 1997 to January 2013). In June 2001,
Lui Zhihua’s sentence was again reduced by two years, and he is
now due to be released on 16 January 2011. He is currently being
held at the Hunan Provincial No.6 Prison (Longxi Prison).
Shao Liangchen 邵良臣 : Driver
Shao was reported to be a leading member of the Ji’nan Workers’
Autonomous Federation in Shandong Province during the May 1989 pro-democracy
demonstrations (other sources say that he was a bystander). He was
detained by police on 15 June 1989, tried in September that year
by the Ji’nan Intermediate People’s Court on charges of “sabotaging
communications equipment” and then sentenced to death with a two-year
reprieve. His sentence was subsequently reduced to life imprisonment,
and then in July 1994 to 17 years’ imprisonment. He received two
further sentence reductions in 1998 and 2000, totaling three years
and six months, bringing his date of release to November 4, 2007.
Shao Liangchen is currently serving his sentence in Weihu Prison,
Shandong Province. According to the magazine, Beijing Spring (http://beijingspring.com/bj2/2005/420/2005930184459.htm),
Shao passed away in late 2004, two months after he was released
on medical ground. Shao was reportedly diagnosed with leukemia in
2004. His death has never been confirmed.
Wang Miaogen 王妙根 : Manual worker
Wang, a manual worker in Shanghai at the time of the May 1989 pro-democracy
movement, was a leading member of the Shanghai Workers Autonomous
Federation which was formed that month. Detained shortly after the
June 4, 1989 government crackdown, Wang then spent two and a half
years in police detention undergoing “re-education through labour”
on account of his involvement in the banned workers’ group. In April
1993, after he committed an act of self-mutilation in front of a
Shanghai police station in public protest against having recently
been severely beaten up by the police, he was subsequently detained
and then forcibly committed to the Shanghai Ankang Mental Hospital,
a facility run by the Public Security Bureau to detain and treat
mentally ill people. Wang has been held incommunicado at the Shanghai
Ankang now for more than 12 years.
Zhang Shanguang 张善光 : Teacher / Education
Labour activist Zhang Shanguang, formerly a secondary school teacher,
was first sentenced to seven years imprisonment after the June 4,
1989 government crackdown for his role in organising the Hunan Workers'
Autonomous Federation in May of that year. While in prison, he contracted
a severe case of tuberculosis. After his release, in early 1998,
Zhang was interviewed by several overseas radio stations about widespread
labor and peasant unrest in his home county of Xupu. He also attempted
to officially register with the authorities, a labour rights group
that he had recently founded (Zhang Shanguang) – the Association
to Protect the Rights and Interests of Laid-Off Workers (APRILW).
By July 1998, this association had attracted more than 300 members
from all walks of life, including workers, peasants, intellectuals
and cadres, and even some local officials were initially supportive
of the group’s aims. On July 21 1998, the police detained Zhang,
searched his home and confiscated all documents and correspondence
relating to APRILW. Zhang’s wife, Hou Xuezhu 候雪竹, was questioned
and threatened by the police, who also urged her to divorce her
husband. His many supporters in Xupu County rose swiftly to his
defense, writing numerous appeals and even staging hunger strikes
demanding his release. According to one such appeal letter, “The
work of Zhang Shanguang will surely encourage the people of Hunan
and the whole country to wage an even wider-scale struggle to win
democracy and freedom.” Subsequently charged on the twin counts
of “passing intelligence to hostile overseas organisations” and
“incitement to subvert state power,” Zhang was tried on 27 December
1998 and sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment. His tuberculosis has
continued to worsen and he is reportedly now in very poor medical
condition. There have been numerous reports of ill treatment and
torture while in prison.
Zhao Changqing 赵常青 : Teacher / Education
Zhao, now 37 years old, was first arrested in June 1989 and detained
for four months at Qincheng Prison, Beijing, for having organised
a Students’ Autonomous Committee at the Shaanxi Normal University
during the pro-democracy movement in May that year. He was arrested
again in 1998 while teaching at a school affiliated with the Shaanxi
Hanzhong Nuclear Industry Factory 813, after attempting to stand
for election as a factory representative to the National People’s
Congress and publicly criticising the All-China Federation of Trade
Unions (ACFTU) for failing to defend workers interests. In an open
letter to his fellow factory workers, dated 11 January 1998, Zhao
wrote: “You should treasure your democratic rights. Even if I cannot
run as a formal candidate, if you believe I am capable of representing
you and of struggling for your interests, then I ask you to write
in my name on the ballot. If elected, I will be worthy of your trust
and will demonstrate my loyalty to you through my actions.” Before
the workers’ ballots could be cast on January 14, Zhao was secretly
detained by the police on suspicion of “endangering state security.”
In July that year, he was tried at the Hanzhong City Intermediate
People’s Court on charges of “subversion” and sentenced to three
years’ imprisonment. After his release, in early November 2002 Zhao
drafted and circulated an open letter to the National People’s Congress
demanding, among other things, an official reassessment of the 1989
pro-democracy movement and the release of all political prisoners.
In due course, 192 other political dissidents signed the letter,
thereby attracting widespread international attention to what was
the most significant political action by Chinese dissidents in recent
years. In December 2002, Zhao Changqing was arrested by police for
the third time and was later sentenced to 5 years’ imprisonment
for “incitement to subvert state power”. In April 2006 it was reported
that Zhao’s sister was told by prison officials that Zhao was still
in solitary confinement because of his unwillingness to accept prison
procedures and because he had been in contact with some Falun Gong
practitioners who had also been placed in solitary confinement.
Zhao’s family members are deeply concerned about Zhao’s medical
condition, given that he was formerly treated for tuberculosis.
They claim he has only received one medical examination since being
imprisoned three years ago.
Zhu Fangming 朱芳鸣 : Mill worker / Food production
Zhu was a 28-year-old worker at the Hengyang City (Hunan Province)
Flour Factory and vice-chairman of the Hengyang City Workers Autonomous
Federation. He organised demonstrations and took part in sit-in
in front of the municipal government offices. After the events of
June 4, he allegedly led workers to the municipal Public Security
Bureau to demand justice. He was sentenced in December 1989 by the
Hengyang City Intermediate People’s Court to life imprisonment on
a charge of “hooliganism”. In 1993, ICFTU received a reply from
the Chinese government, indicating that Zhu was “released, acquitted
of criminal responsibility”. Yet, due to the too-short-be-true prison
term and lack of independent source to prove the release, Zhu is
believed to be still held in Hengyang Prison (Hunan Provincial No.2
Prison).
IHLO
4 June 2006 |
