YAO FUXIN'S LABOR PAINS: LABOR LEADER'S

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 SHENYANG 000150

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/25/2019
TAGS: ELAB PHUM PINR PINS SOCI CH SPILL
SUBJECT: YAO FUXIN'S LABOR PAINS: LABOR LEADER'S
SCRUTINY,ILL HEALTH AND A LAWSUIT

REF: A. 08 SHENYANG 00003

B. 07 SHENYANG 00095

C. SHENYANG 00130

Classified By: Consul General Stephen B. Wickman Reasons 1.4 b/d


1. (C) Summary. The family of labor activist Yao Fuxin, who
was released from prison in March 2009, is still subject to
restrictions on travel and very close scrutiny of all of
their actions, according to the activist's daughter Yao
Dan, who has reported to us periodically (Ref A and B). Mr.
Yao's health is failing and he has received no help from
the Chinese government to get the treatment he needs. A
chance meeting with Mr. Yao confirmed his ill health, his
fight for justice against the ill treatment he says he
suffered in prison, and the continuing influence he has in
his run-down neighborhood of Liaoyang. Yao's daughter
believes the recent Tonghua unrest (Ref C) in Jilin
Province has the same root causes as the factory closure
that led to her father's struggle earlier in the
decade--the disappearance of China's social safety net,
corruption, and unresponsive authorities. She seeks help
verifying whether her father has received a human rights
award from Switzerland. End Summary.


2. (C) On August 5, after dropping off his daughter from a
prearranged interview, Pol/Econ Chief unexpectedly met
briefly with Yao Fuxin, the Liaoning labor leader who
served a seven-year jail term for subversion of state power
after leading a protest by workers upset by the forced
closure and restructuring of their Ferro-Alloy Plant in
Liaoyang, Liaoning Province. Quite agitated, Mr. Yao
immediately launched into a comparison of U.S. and Chinese
treatment of prisoners. He surmised that the cruelties
alleged to have occurred at the U.S. detention center in
Guantanamo were unique occurrences in the sensitive
post-9/11 environment but that in China, such maltreatment
against prisoners is common practice at all police
stations. Yao's face reddened, his voice rose, and he began
to pace about the small room as he recounted in detail the
mistreatment he said he received under police custody
during his arrest and while he was awaiting trial. After
calming down, Mr. Yao explained that he has sued the
Liaoyang city government for the removal of the policeman
who perpetrated these acts of cruelty against him and
provided us a copy of the court documents.

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Growing Pressure, Failing Health
--------------


3. (C) Yao Fuxin said that as the 60th anniversary of the
founding of the PRC approaches, he and his family have been
subject to more surveillance than usual. He expressed his
concern that his hypertension and cardiac ailments, which
he says started after his arrest, will go untreated. Mr.
Yao says that with no pension, no social security
insurance, and no medical insurance, he has no way to get
the treatment owed to him and that he is unwilling to 'give
money to Chinese system.' According to Yao Dan, Mr. Yao's
daughter and intermittent contact of the consulate (Ref A
and B),Mr. Yao has nearly fainted three or four times
since his release. Neither she nor her mother can convince
him to seek medical attention and do not have the means to
pay for what they believe would be daily treatments.
Currently, the family's small grocery store and Yao's
wife's pension are their primary sources of income. Yao Dan
works as a sales clerk at a friend's garment store, but she
says her income has been unstable, particularly during the
financial crisis.

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"A 'Free' Ride Home"
--------------


4. (SBU) As an example of the scrutiny facing the family,
Yao Dan recounted her father's failed attempts to meet with
his lawyer, famed civil rights attorney, Mo Shaoping, in
Beijing. According to the daughter, a police prohibition
against Mr. Yao's travel outside of Liaoyang took effect
immediately upon his release from prison in March. Late
that month, Mr. Yao twice attempted to travel to Beijing to
meet with his attorney. Both attempts failed when local
police intercepted him on the train before he got to

SHENYANG 00000150 002 OF 003


Beijing and offered him a ride home. In April, Mr. Yao
successfully reached Beijing when a friend drove him to the
neighboring city of Anshan, where he boarded a train.
However, a few days after his arrival in Beijing, Liaoyang
police located him in the capital and once again escorted
him back to his home.


5. (C) Yao Dan said the escorts or "watching police" never
once used physical force or violence during these
interceptions. She believes that most of the local police
officers are ordinary citizens who know what happened to
her father and who are sympathetic. Some of them even have
relatives who suffered the same misery that the employees
of the Ferro-Alloy Plant went through. She said these
officers fully understand why Mr. Yao and his fellow
workers protested. Some police officers even allowed the
family to go to neighboring cities only to be "located" and
given "a free ride home," as Yao Dan calls it.

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Lawsuits and Counter Lawsuits
--------------


6. (C) According to Yao Dan, the police had threatened to
sue Yao Fuxin for violating the traveling restrictions. Mo
Shaoping, Yao's lawyer, argued that although the police
were technically within their rights to sue Mr. Yao for the
violation, they should take into consideration the social
consequences that may follow any such action. After some
consideration, the Liaoyang police apparently have decided
not to sue Yao Fuxin. In April 2009, however, Mr. Yao
himself sued the Liaoyang Procuratorate to protest the
maltreatment he suffered at the Liaoyang City detention
center. According to Yao's account and petition prepared by
his attorney, during the time of his initial arrest in
2002, police officers at the detention center repeatedly
beat and/or whipped him and the other prisoners, left his
cell window open in the freezing cold in order to cause
severe physical stress that resulted in chilblains, denied
him food, and often deprived him of sleep. When attorney Mo
Shaoping met with Yao before the court proceedings, Mo
found that Mr. Yao was unable to think or talk clearly and
had had not slept for a week or more. The Liaoyang
Procuratorate has yet to respond to the petition, and Mr.
Yao believes that the Procuratorate is intentionally
delaying the response so that Yao will not be able to take
his petition to the provincial appellate court.

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Influence on Local Events
--------------


7. (SBU) According to Yao Dan, her father is still
influential among the workers of the Ferro-Alloy Plant. In
March, within days of being released from prison, he called
on the workers to petition for not receiving their annual
one-child-policy awards (about RMB 2,000). Local government
took quick action and issued the award to the workers on
March 18.

-------------- --------------
Tonghua Protests: Root Cause the Same, Methods Vastly
Different
-------------- --------------


8. (C) In response to our query, Yao Dan said she had heard
about the recent incident in Tonghua, Jilin Province (Ref
C) though she is unsure whether her father knows about it
because he has never mentioned Tonghua. According to Ms.
Yao, even though the protests in Tonghua and Liaoyang were
both against corruption in the restructuring of state-owned
enterprises (SOEs),there were notable differences in the
methods used by the protesters. The 2002 protests in
Liaoyang were well-organized and peaceful, and she proudly
states that her father and his fellow workers had
thoroughly prepared for months. They collected evidence of
the corruption during the restructuring of the Ferro-Alloy
plant and reported this evidence to higher authorities in
some detail. The workers in Liaoyang had a clear
organizational chart dividing their units into management
liaison, propaganda and information dissemination, and
security. In contrast, according to Ms. Yao, the Tonghua
incident was not well organized, the workers acted
radically -- more like an uprising than a protest -- and

SHENYANG 00000150 003 OF 003


they killed the general manager. She later noted with some
sadness that the end results were different in both cases,
too, but declined to discuss her opinions further.

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Request for Assistance
--------------


9. (SBU) Yao Dan has heard that her father won a human
rights award in Switzerland in 2008. Police are
investigating and have asked her about it as have members
of the foreign press. Neither she nor her father has any
information about this. She asks that we verify the
information, as she has no way to do so. Post would
appreciate any information Washington agencies might have
on this award or how we might follow up.

WICKMAN