Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08HONGKONG880
2008-05-15 08:16:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Consulate Hong Kong
Cable title:  

LABOR NGO CONCERNED ABOUT SECURITY OF PRC-BASED

Tags:  PGOV PHUM PREL PINR CH HK MC 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO4880
PP RUEHCN RUEHGH RUEHVC
DE RUEHHK #0880 1360816
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 150816Z MAY 08
FM AMCONSUL HONG KONG
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4875
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
C O N F I D E N T I A L HONG KONG 000880 

SIPDIS

NSC FOR DENNIS WILDER
DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/CM

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/15/2033
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL PINR CH HK MC
SUBJECT: LABOR NGO CONCERNED ABOUT SECURITY OF PRC-BASED
ACTIVITIES


Classified By: E/P Chief Laurent Charbonnet. Reasons: 1.4(b,d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L HONG KONG 000880

SIPDIS

NSC FOR DENNIS WILDER
DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/CM

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/15/2033
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL PINR CH HK MC
SUBJECT: LABOR NGO CONCERNED ABOUT SECURITY OF PRC-BASED
ACTIVITIES


Classified By: E/P Chief Laurent Charbonnet. Reasons: 1.4(b,d).


1. (C) On May 7, Han Dongfang (strictly protect) and Robin
Munro (strictly protect) of the Hong Kong-based China Labour
Bulletin (CLB, strictly protect) discussed ways to strengthen
USG outreach and monitoring of CLB projects (funded by the
USG) on the mainland with visiting Embassy Beijing laboff and
Congen poloff. Though CLB has extensive contacts among labor
activist groups on the mainland, Han and Munro asked that the
USG be extremely careful when approaching CLB partners on the
mainland, because much of their work is based on sensitive,
personal relationships with local government officials on
politically-charged issues such as collective bargaining.


2. (C) Han and Munro said their efforts were at a "turning
point" after fifteen years of preparatory work and were
showing practical results. For CLB,s collective bargaining
project, they have been working with two Chinese partners:
the Shenzhen-based Lao Wei Law Firm, whose director, Duan Yi,
is also Chair of the Shenzhen Lawyers Association Labor Law
Committee; and the Qingdao Xin Shimin Zhi Jia (Qingdao New
Resident,s Center),operated by Chen Mingyu. These partners
make it possible for CLB to influence China's only legal
union, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU),and
empower workers to defend their legal rights. Han said he
recently wrote a speech on collective bargaining that was
channeled through a Shenzhen-based law firm to the head of
the Shenzhen ACFTU, who later delivered it to union officials
during a conference there. Han and Munro said that if the
USG support or funding for the law firm's activities,
including via CLB, became known, then the ACFTU would have to
back away from the entire project. (Note: Laboff noted that
according to other China-based USG grant recipients, the
ACFTU has a strict policy against involvement in any
USG-funded projects. End note.)


3. (C) Our contacts also said that CLB and its partners are
regularly scrutinized by the local security authorities on
the mainland. Munro told us that the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs recently withdrew his visa (which it earlier
approved),as well as those of many others planning to attend
a forum on collective bargaining to be held on the PRC
mainland. Munro claimed that "the security breakdown in
Tibet" probably led the MFA to disapprove all visa
applications to attend the forum. He added that all invitees
except him were later re-approved to attend; he alone was
denied entry.


4. (C) Laboff noted that the USG,s interest in monitoring
CLB,s and other USG-funded projects in China was not just to
ensure that the projects were proceeding as planned. Laboff
said an equally important factor is that such projects, and
the organizations that carry them out, are invaluable sources
of information about labor rights trends in China, where such
information can be very difficult to obtain. CLB, poloff and
laboff agreed that a good way to balance the need for
discretion with the need to communicate would be to avoid
unclassified e-mail or telephone contact on any potentially
sensitive issues between the Embassy or mainland consulates
and CLB, and communicate instead through classified channels
via Congen Hong Kong following face-to-face meetings between
CLB and USG officials. CLB said their mainland-based
partners would be amenable to meeting with mainland-based US
diplomats as long as the meeting requests themselves were
based on good reasons that would not arouse the suspicion of
local authorities. Han gave the example of the Embassy
Beijing,s recent nomination of Chen Mingyu for an IV program
as a good reason for a meeting. Munro said that he
anticipated the collective bargaining project would generate
enough publicity of its own in China that the mainland-based
US diplomats would be able to discuss the projects with them
without arousing the suspicion of local authorities or
revealing the source of funding.
Cunningham