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He was released, in a dazed condition, some eight hours later, but required hospitalization for chest pains and blood clots in his eyes. On April 22, Ferroalloy workers applied to hold a demonstration demanding the release of their jailed representatives but were denied permission. According to Guo Xiujing, Yao Fuxin's wife, "[The police] wanted to know the name of the organizer, but it goes without saying that anybody whose name appeared [on the permit application] would be arrested.
A protest on May 1, the Labor Day holiday, ended without incident but with no concessions from local officials. On May 7, at the start of a three-day protest rally in front of government offices, the City Complaints Bureau told workers that officials were willing to meet with worker representatives. Fearful of detention, the workers refused but handed over a petition with five major demands.
The petition urged officials to: 1 immediately and unconditionally release the four detainees or else try them quickly; 2 make arrangements for Ferroalloy workers to visit with their jailed representatives; 3 investigate and issue a public report on forced bankruptcies; 4 increase government efforts to clamp down on corrupt officials: and 5 punish officers responsible for beating Gu Baoshu. After an elderly woman was beaten and her son remonstrated with the police, he, too, was beaten and dragged away.
The Complaints Bureau arranged for his same-day release. Freedom to demonstrate is guaranteed in Article 35 of the Chinese constitution. However, the provisions of the PRC Law on Assemblies, Procession and Demonstration and the law's implementing regulations make it almost impossible to hold protest demonstrations if the relevant authorities object. The assembly and procession law contravenes the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which China signed in Article 21 of the ICCPR provides that no restrictions may be placed on the exercise of the right to peaceful assembly "other than those imposed in conformity with the law and which are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security or public safety, public order ordre public , the protection of public health or morals or the protection of the rights and freedom of others.
Applications to demonstrate are decided on by the Public Security Bureau and can be denied if what is proposed is deemed to "infringe upon the interests of the state, society and collectives," or would "endanger national unification, sovereignty or territorial integrity In addition, an application to demonstrate cannot be considered if "the placards and slogans to be used Demonstrating after failing to obtain permission carries a possible prison term; thus, the four accused leaders of the Liaoyang protests face up to five years in prison under Article of the Criminal Law on charges of responsibility for "illegal assembly, marches and protests.
Workers, with precedent to draw on, had no reason to believe an application to demonstrate would be dealt with in good faith. During December January , workers from Beijing's Factory embarked on a campaign against the introduction of limited one-year contracts subject to annual renewal.
Management retaliated by dismissing those who refused to sign. After negotiations failed, workers applied to demonstrate. Two police districts denied the request, stating, "There are sufficient grounds to maintain that a parade or demonstration will endanger public security [sufficient] to seriously endanger social order. The Liaoyang Public Security Bureau's refusal to issue a permit did not meet the applicable conditions. Human Rights Watch has serious concerns about the Liaoyang detainees' access to due process, given the harshness of the law, the inadequacy of protections offered at trial, and the difficulties the defendants face in obtaining independent, qualified counsel.
For example, the families of the four detainees, Yao Fuxin, Pang qingxiang, xiao yunliang, and wang Zhaoming, spent April and May trying to find lawyers willing to represent the men. Only Xiao Yunliang's family had succeeded as of this writing, and, when Xiao's lawyer tried to meet with him in early April, the Public Security Bureau refused him permission, claiming that Xiao had refused to hire him. During the s and s, Daqing became renowned throughout China as the model for rapid oil field development.
Even now, thirty-two years after his death in , it is difficult to find an urban resident in China who is not familiar with the personification of that model, Wang Jinxi, better known as Iron Man Wang. Wang's reputed selflessness, his patriotism, and willingness to work long hours in terrible conditions to support the nation's development were frequently lauded in nationwide "emulation" campaigns.
Ironically, it is protesting workers in Daqing, most in their forties, fifties, and sixties, who invoke Wang's spirit and determination. One flier handed out in the city's Iron Man Square on March 25, called on protesters to "follow the Iron Man's example. It is better to die twenty years early and struggle with all one's might to the end Oil was discovered in the Daqing area in at the beginning of the Great Leap Forward GLF , an ultimately disastrous campaign aimed at forcing the pace of China's modernization so as to "catch up and surpass Britain in the output of major industrial goods" within three years.
The fledgling oil industry in Daqing was one bright spot in a nearly bankrupt economy, at the time 90 percent dependent on imported oil. According to the State Statistics Bureau, in , urban residents' per capita disposable income was almost twice the national average; average wages were in the top ten for cities nationwide.
Further cuts are planned, tens of thousands of workers in alone, to allow PetroChina, owner of most of Daqing's oil fields, to fulfill its obligations to shareholders in the face of increased competition and pressure to improve productivity following WTO entry. The wave of daily workers' protest demonstrations that began on March 1, , emerged from over five years of major restructuring in the oil industry and the gradual decline of Daqing as China's most important oil center.
Oil imports steadily increased through the s; by , 30 percent of China's oil was imported. CNPC absorbed the Daqing oil field. Although the Daqing field still accounts for 30 percent of China's crude oil production, output continues to be down and DOCL faces an uphill struggle to regain profitability. Referring to PetroChina separating out its most profitable assets for the IPO, Zeng Yukang, head of Daqing Oil and the target of oil workers' wrath, told the People's Daily just before protests started in March, "[A]nyone left in the remaining subsidiary companies would scream injustice.
Aging wells, high production costs, and a drop in the international price of crude oil were cited by Daqing Mayor Wang Zhibin as causes of the production cutback. Estimates for the number of Daqing workers laid off since Daqing Oil began restructuring vary considerably, from 38, by January , to "86, of the company's , employees [in] recent years. On November , , Daqing Oil issued two documents that outlined the severance agreement the company was offering some 80, of its laid-off employees, more than one-quarter of the city's oil workers.
After a March 25, , meeting with what authorities claimed were representatives of an organization called "workers compensated for contract termination," the leader of a State Council Investigation Team that had been sent to Daqing to look into the dispute, made the same points in a speech broadcast over loudspeaker in Iron Man Square. He asked pointedly, "Why are people complaining now?
Laid-off workers told a different story. In a leaflet criticizing the process, they charged that there had been no consultation with the company's workers congress:. Surely such decisions that are not discussed by the staff and workers congress, but simply announced and implemented, violate the Enterprise Law and the Trade Union Law. Why didn't the Daqing Petroleum Administration Bureau trade union protect the rights of the workers? So much for the DPAB's stressing of "legality. Although Daqing Oil did not make full details of the severance payments public, it reportedly offered workers relatively large sums of money for years of accumulated service.
Rather, their grievances related to ongoing suspicions that management had not informed them of relevant information before the agreement was finalized, and resentment of the unilateral changes made to it since. The banners of protesting workers expressed their outrage: "We don't want to be tricked again! Workers had been offered the severance package with no alternative, they say, and then the terms had been changed. As one laid-off employee, who had opened a shop with her severance money and did not plead poverty, recalled the situation:.
When the company made the offer they made it clear we had no choice; they had to reduce the workforce or the company was finished. Take the money now or you'll get nothing later on, was the message. So everyone took it, because they [the company] said when we reached retirement age we would get the same treatment as the workers kept on. Now they've changed it.
They lied. She was referring to increases of 46 percent in pension premiums and medical insurance between the time the agreement was signed in November and early Corruption was a factor in Daqing, as in Liaoyang. In May , the listing of the Lianyi Petrochemical Company, a Daqing-based enterprise, on the Shanghai stock exchange engendered a major scandal. But the accusations of unilateral and illegal behavior leveled at Daqing Oil's management did not move the government to investigate or intervene.
The changes to pension and insurance premiums came on top of other losses that put many former employees on the verge of poverty.
Many ex-oil workers had seen their compensation money disappear after they followed government advice and opened small businesses which quickly failed. Deliberately elusive, the core organizers seem to have been a small group. One demonstration participant told Radio Free Asia: "There were maybe four or five people.
They all seemed pretty clued up and well-educated, able to write well and speak articulately, and they understood the law as well. Although they became increasingly intermittent, demonstrations persisted through March and into April and May. A group of some 1, protesting workers spearheaded the gatherings in Iron Man Square, with the number swelling regularly to between 7, and 8, despite police roadblocks. By mid-March, the demonstrations were being monitored each day by some PAP troops; and at least twelve truckloads of soldiers were out of sight but available at a moment's notice.
By that time, too, fear of copycat protests led to a total domestic media blackout. A search of the Workers Daily website postings from the middle of March to the end of May and of various local labor publications produced no reports — not even a mention — of the unrest.
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In quieter times, the issues that sparked the protests, such as wage arrears, severance deals, and allegations of corruption, are regularly covered in the official labor press. The largest crowds gathered on March 4 and 5.
The first day, workers blocked a train heading for Russia for thirty minutes in a successful attempt to attract international attention to the protests. One participant — who would be detained twice in connection with the protests — described the scene:. From onwards We headed towards the railway tracks because some people were saying that an international train was due to come through and it would have foreigners on board; if we hold them up, we will have more impact We blocked it for half an hour but then dispersed as we were afraid that a long delay might cause an accident.
In the four months since the start of the protests, plainclothes police made "snatch" detentions of anyone who appeared to play a leading or organizing role. That same day, March 5, plainclothes police detained a Mrs. Ma, who had earlier pleaded with the crowd in Iron Man Square to uphold public order and, not to smash any windows or public property. As one worker reported:. She was saying to everyone that we're all laid-off workers and there was no need to smash things up as it would only play into the hands of bad people like the Falungong who would manipulate [the protests].
She said we must respect public order and not break windows and doors. Reports indicate that some minor unprovoked acts of vandalism occurred. Human Rights Watch recognizes that Chinese authorities have the right and the responsibility to investigate and prosecute those responsible for acts of violence. The authorities made no allegations that those taken into custody were apprehended for participation in such acts.
Indeed, Mrs. Ma urged against any vandalism.
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The police detained Mrs. Ma around p. According to the same source, a laid-off worker, Mrs. Ma was still in custody as of April 1 and had managed to send out a letter saying she was refusing food. The source reported on two other detentions. Li Yan, a retired worker, was in detention as of April 1; as of this writing in mid-July, his whereabouts and condition remained unknown. Workers in the Square also reported that detainees had to pay a daily charge of Rmb for lodging pugai fei and Rmb 10 for food.