By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – Yao Fuxin, a leading labor activist in China, has been released after serving a seven-year prison term.  He was arrested in 2002 along with another laid-off factory worker, Xiao Yunliang, after speaking at a peaceful demonstration involving at least 5,000 workers from six state-owned factories in Liaoyang. According to Human Rights in China, Yao was initially charged with “gathering a crowd to disrupt social order,” but that was later changed to “subversion of state power”, which is more serious charge.

Human Rights in China said Yao had been beaten while in detention.  He had difficulty walking, and suffered two heart attacks and a stroke in prison.  According to the Human Rights website “In the Liaoyang Detention Center, he and 19 other inmates were made to sleep on one bed. There, a guard named Lang arranged for two death-row prisoners to watch Yao. Every time Yao closed his eyes to sleep, the two prisoners would step on him.”

Yao also confirmed the abuse in prison and said he planned to take legal action against prison authorities.  “In the coldest weather, they put me under the window, which they left open,” he said. “My legs were twitching. My lower body was numb with cold.”

Yao Dan, Yao’s daughter, told AFP that her father is very happy to be out of prison.  “When he got out of prison, workers gave him a big banquet and thanked him for all the suffering he has gone through”, she says.  Yao expressed that he felt to fight for the interests of the people and the country is his duty.  “There’s nothing wrong in what I did,” Yao said in a telephone interview. “I was just exercising my rights, which are given by the constitution. What did I do wrong as a citizen? It was worth it. I feel no regret at all.”

“It is tragic for Yao and for China that a labor activist who was demanding back wages and pension payments was imprisoned for seven years and abused,” said Sharon Hom, executive director of Human Rights in China.  She urge the Chinese government to focus on protecting workers basic rights instead of cracking down on them.

For more information, please see:

AFP – China labour leader freed after 7 years in jail – 17 March 2009

AP – China labor activist free after 7 years jail – 17 March 2009

ChinaWoker – Yao Fuxin, leader of 2002 workers’ protests, is released from prison – 17 March 2009

Human Rights in China – Labor Leader Yao Fuxin is Released After Completing Seven-Year Term – 17 March 2009