Three labor activists were given suspended sentences of two to four years, Chinese state media said yesterday, citing their involvement with “overseas organizations hostile to China.”
Zeng Feiyang (曾飛洋), director of the prominent labor rights group the Panyu Workers’ Center, was given a three-year sentence suspended for four years, while his coworkers Tang Huanxing (湯歡興) and Zhu Xiaomei (朱小梅) received 18 months suspended for two years, the official Xinhua news agency said.
They had been helping workers in southern Guangdong Province win payment of wages and unpaid benefits in disputes against employers, but were convicted of “ignoring national laws and organizing mass gatherings that disturbed social order,” Xinhua cited a Guangdong court as saying.
Independent trade unions are banned in China, with only the official All-China Federation of Trade Unions legally recognized.
However, critics say it often fails to assist workers in disputes.
“I accepted training and funding from overseas organizations hostile to China, and, at their request, incited and organized workers to protect their rights in an extreme way,” Zeng said in his closing remarks, according to Xinhua.
“I hope that others will take my case as a lesson and not be conned by such organizations,” he added.
A Monday report from the Chinese Ministry of Public Security claimed that Zeng had misappropriated funds from “multiple overseas groups and foreign embassies” since 2010, Xinhua said.
It quoted Tang as saying: “On the surface, we seem to be fighting for workers’ rights, but the real intention was to expand our influence, particularly overseas.”
All three defendants plead guilty and said that they would not appeal.
Guangdong is one of China’s richest provinces, but is confronting growing economic challenges as many factories in the Pearl River Delta close or relocate to cheaper Chinese provinces — or countries such as Vietnam, where labor costs are lower.
Workers are often left with unpaid wages and no redundancy pay.
The court sentence comes in the midst of what rights groups have called an “unprecedented” campaign of arrests of labor activists, as well as a broader crackdown on dissent that has seen hundreds detained and dozens jailed in the years since President Xi Jinping (習近平) rose to power in 2013.
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