China labour activist receive suspended sentences

Three labour activists in Guangdong Province received suspended jail sentences of up to three years in an outcome that many had predicted but also feared. Zeng Feiyang, Zhu Xiaomei, and Tang Huanxing pleaded guilty to ‘ignoring national laws and organising mass gatherings that disturbed social order’ for organising workers to take independent actions last year. Arrests and trials like this one are quite clearly aimed at clamping down on growing labour activism by workers inside China. A number of international labour organisation also expressed their support for the right of workers to organise without fear of repression. 

Three labour activists in Guangdong Province received suspended jail sentences of up to three years in an outcome that many had predicted but also feared. Zeng Feiyang, Zhu Xiaomei, and Tang Huanxing pleaded guilty to ‘ignoring national laws and organising mass gatherings that disturbed social order’ for organising workers to take independent actions last year. Arrests and trials like this one are quite clearly aimed at clamping down on growing labour activism by workers inside China. A number of international labour organisation also expressed their support for the right of workers to organise without fear of repression.