After the Ferro-Alloy Factory in Liaoyang, Liaoning Province, was declared bankrupt in early 2002, the local workers elected Yao Fuxin as one of their spokespeople to conduct negotiations with the local government. In March 2002, Yao and his fellow worker Xiao Yunliang 萧云良 then helped to organise a series of massive protest demonstrations in Liaoyang. Yao was secretly detained 17 March 2002, and charged together with Xiao Yunliang, with the crime of "illegal assembly and demonstration". Subsequently, on account of his alleged involvement in the banned China Democracy Party (CDP) – he has consistently denied such involvement – the charge of "subversion" was brought against him. (In November 2002, during a press conference in Beijing, Deputy-Chairman Zhang Junjiu of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) stated that Yao had been “detained because he broke Chinese law by carrying out car-bombings and not because he organised a worker’s campaign”. This ludicrous allegation was later denied even by the chairman of the Liaoyang ACFTU branch, a Mr. Su, who confirmed by telephone to China Labour Bulletin: "That is sheer rumour. There is no way that Yao Fuxin was involved in such activities.") Tried at the Liaoyang Intermediate People’s Court on 15 January 2003, Yao was sentenced to seven years in prison and will be due for release in March 2009. Like his fellow prisoner Xiao Yunliang, he has been plagued by serious health problems throughout his imprisonment.
June 2005
[ close ]