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Less than three weeks later, on November 5, , the Liaoyang Ferroalloy Factory was formally declared bankrupt. According to government officials and worker representatives, although negotiations over future arrangements for the plant's workers did continue, by March it was clear they had stalled.
The government claimed it had met with worker representatives five times; 96 workers claimed the government had been negotiating in bad faith. On March 3, , another meeting, one that Ferroalloy workers referred to as a "bankruptcy discussion and vote meeting" pocha taolun toupiao hui took place. So as to minimize open opposition to a second vote on the bankruptcy, local authorities adopted the same intimidation tactics they had used in October Police detained three worker representatives and, according to an open letter from Ferroalloy workers, it was only "due to the masses and family members barring the way" that five more worker representatives escaped detention.
During the first week of March , Ferroalloy employees issued a total of four open letters, all in the name of the "Unemployed Workers of the Bankrupt Liaoyang Ferroalloy Plant. Three were issued on March 5: one, as mentioned, was addressed to the Liaoning governor, Bo Xi; another to President Jiang Zemin; and the third to all ex-employees at the plant.
The fourth, issued on March 4, was addressed to the Liaoyang Party Committee and government leaders, the "liquidation team" pochan qingsuan xiaozu , factory cadres, and workers and their families. That letter accused government officials and company management of colluding in corruption, questioned the need for closing the factory, and, quoting applicable laws and regulations, argued that the liquidation process had been illegal.
Moreover, the Liaoyang Party Committee, the city government and other leaders What are your aims? Explain them clearly to the mass of workers.
The letter went on to accuse former Liaoning governor Zhang Guoguang since transferred to the governorship of Hubei province of manipulating the bankruptcy process. And it demanded information on when unpaid wages, pensions, and medical reimbursements would be paid.
On March 11, Gong Shangwu, chair of the city's People's Congress and leader of Liaoyang's delegation to the National People's Congress--then in session in Beijing--told a local television reporter that "there were no unemployed in Liaoyang" and that the city's economic transition had encountered no serious problems. In response, on March some 17, mainly laid-off xia gang workers took to the streets of Liaoyang in protest.
Some 15, workers from the piston, instruments, leather and precision tool factories joined 2, Ferroalloy workers in a show of strength and mutual support. Workers claimed that Ferroalloy general manager Fan Yicheng, with the approval of Gong and other government officials, used public funds to set up at least three independent companies. As protests continued on March 12, twelve local government leaders, including the deputy secretary of the Liaoyang Communist Party Committee, two deputy mayors, the secretary of the Liaoyang Political and Legal Committee, the city's chief judge, chief prosecutor, and chief of public security, met with thirteen worker representatives to assure them of official concern and of the government's intention to work toward solutions.
One worker representative surnamed Pang told workers: "They said they are taking the problems the workers have put forward extremely seriously and solicitously. They are considering ways of solving [them] and working to calm [the situation]. Pang went on to say that the government was willing to consider the issues of corruption, bankruptcies, unemployment, and past arrests.
Judging from the workers' words, the issue of arrests was especially important. They were still angry about previous detentions and about the fact that not one factory manager had been detained on suspicion of corruption. The officials bought time by arguing they had to wait for the secretary of the Communist Party Committee to return from a trip before resuming talks.
But the Public Security Bureau chief did guarantee that workers could safely return to their homes; no one would be arrested. Taking officials at their word, workers called off the protests.
For four days all was quiet. Then, on March 17 around a. He was still in view when his daughter saw two men in civilian clothes bundle him into a car. A policeman on duty at the station house, when asked about the incident, said he knew nothing about it. That's the correct procedure isn't it? But we still haven't heard any news and this happened nearly two days ago. We don't know anything. On March 18 workers turned out in force to protest Yao's apparent arrest. According to participants, some 4, former Ferroalloy workers were joined by as many as 30, supporters from some twenty other Liaoyang factories in a march down Democracy Road to local government headquarters to demand Yao's release and to express outrage at the government's broken promise.
According to participants and local taxi drivers, some 10, took part in the following day's demonstration. Pang, in speaking with reporters, claimed the turnout would have been much larger if the police had not set up roadblocks. He went on to say, "[We] also asked for talks with the Party and the mayor, but they refused to meet us.
At least one read, "we have a government of hooligans. By March 20, police and paramilitary troops had sealed off streets leading to Democracy Road. The show of force, combined with bad weather, reduced the marchers to less than one-fifteenth their former number. Some 2,many of them elderly and retired, as organizers thought they were less likely to be arrested--did gather in front of government offices; worker representatives planned to go inside to try to negotiate Yao's release. His daughter described the morning scene:.
They were all out there. There were three truckloads of PAP troops right outside the gates to the city government offices.
They pushed us [out of the building's courtyard] into the rain and we all were drenched. Seventy- and eighty-year-old women drenched in the rain! The guys wearing steel helmets were the anti-riot police. One worker representative, Gu Baoshu, was able to get past the paramilitary troops and into the government building, only to be detained by security forces. When a woman in the crowd realized what had happened and alerted others, some one hundred workers forced their way into the room where public security officials were holding Gu and secured his release. A month later police officers took their revenge.
See below.
By midday on March 20, the workers had started home. About thirty older retired workers, under the impression that security forces would not attack them, agreed to protect worker representatives who were also returning home. Not far from the government offices, a combined group of police and PAP officers rushed the workers and seized three representatives, Pang Qingxiang and Xiao Yunliang, both in their fifties; and thirty-nine year-old Wang Zhaoming. The incident brought the number of detained worker representatives to four.
Workers now felt even more strongly that only older, retired workers would be safe in representing them; and some 1, appeared at government offices the next day, March 21, to demand the release of the four detainees. As Yao Fuxin's daughter described the scene: "Today, there was an older Ferroalloy worker in a wheelchair who came out Two older women pushed his wheelchair and he represented us. Later on March 21, officers of the Baita district Public Security Bureau notified Yao's family that he was, in fact, in their custody. She in turn visited workers to urge restraint.
Yao was reticent to talk about his own condition despite inquiries from his wife. She later recalled the conversation:. When he rang, someone else came on the line first and said, "Are you a relative of Yao Fuxin? Then he let Yao Fuxin persuade me to talk to everyone and ask them to call off the demonstrations. After Yao finished I asked him, "Are you ok? I asked what he had said. Yao said, "Nothing much. He didn't give any precise day when people would be released.
The main thing he talked about was that people should stay off the streets and stop demanding that the government release people; people need to calm down as he has already talked with [Liaoyang's PSB head]. I said, "So what did he say about you and the others [detainees]? That's about it really. Also on March 21, the four detained leaders--Yao, Pang, Wang, and Xiao--received formal notices of their arrests; the men were charged with "illegal demonstration," that is, with responsibility for organizing the protests.
The notice was based on allegations that the workers violated the "PRC Law on Assemblies, Parades and Demonstration" which requires advanced police permission for demonstrations. In the Ferroalloy case, the state-controlled Liaoyang Daily described "putting up posters in public places and making links [cooperation among workers from different factories]" to be evidence of criminal activity--a not-so-oblique justification for any arrests the police might make. As one taxi driver said in commenting on the participation of textile, machinery, paper and other workers, "[T]hey had all linked up and organized.
By March 25, positions on both sides had hardened, with workers accusing the government of reneging on promises to help them find work, suggesting instead they leave the area; and city officials suggesting that outside agitators--hostile labor groups from Hong Kong and foreign "black hands," including foreign media--were fanning the unrest.
Reports circulated, at the same time, that Ferroalloy workers had received half their back wages and part of their severance pay, and that the city government was contributing Rmb 2. In late March, after rumors surfaced that Yao had suffered a heart attack, relatives of the detained men appealed to city officials to free the men. According to one relative:. I cried and I knelt down in front of the government, but nobody talked to us I was also trying to explain that we wanted no trouble, just the release of our loved ones.
I was halfway through when some officials tried to haul us away.
Several elderly women present argued with the officials, giving the relatives a chance to leave safely. Within the week, it became clear that central authorities, likely concerned over the endurance and solidarity displayed by the workers, had ordered a crackdown. They informed local officials that it was their responsibility to isolate workers from their counterparts in other provinces and industries and from foreign backers. The government's use of force and the charges against the protest leadership effectively stopped the demonstrations for a while, but the situation was far from calm.
On April 11, Yao Fuxin's wife was permitted to see him in detention and reported that, although her husband could speak clearly, the right side of his body was numb and he was suffering from migraines. She also reported that Yao told her he had been kept in leg irons for the first four days of his detention.
Typically, families do not have access to criminal detainees until both trial and appeal are over and the prisoner is transferred from detention to a prison or labor camp. On April 16, police officers entered Gu Baoshu's home, ripped out the telephone line, bound, gagged, and beat him, then took him away.
Liaoyang is one of the oldest continuously-inhabited cities in northeast China, dating back to before the Spring and Autumn period. During the Chinese Tang. Looking for events in Liaoyang? Whether you're a local, new in town, or just passing through, you'll be sure to find something on Eventbrite that piques your.
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.