Jasic incident

Details

Workers' unrest

In May 2018, Yu Juncong, a 25-year-old worker born in Jiangxi province, was dismissed. Several workers at the Jasic Technology factory in Shenzhen – citing the dismissal of Yu, poor working conditions, illegal mandatory overtime work, and excessive fines – attempted to form a labour union for the factory. When the workers issued their petition to the All-China Federation of Trade Unions and got swiftly rejected, the workers began to form a union anyway. However, the company took a common anti-union position, and in June the managers of the Jasic company called for an Assembly of Employee Representatives to replace the workers' self-organized union. Leading workers of the union soon became the target of management's slander and defamation, accompanied by threats, insults and job redistribution. On 20 July, the police arrested two workers' leaders, after which more than 20 workers went to the police station to demand the release of the two men, who were, however, similarly arrested later. On 27 July, more than 30 workers and supporters involved in the labour dispute were detained again for "picking quarrels and provoking troubles" while attempting to return to work, including significant members of the labour organization.

Formation and engagement of solidarity groups

University students began to take notice on July 27, when police violently arrested nearly 30 workers and sympathizers. One day later, Wu Jingtang, who had been a leader during the Tonghua Iron and Steel Group riot ten years ago, called for joining the struggle: "For an awakening of the working class, for Chairman Mao!" Chinese Maoists and New Leftists, notably editors of Maoflag and Utopia, began to show support for the Jasic workers. According to a post related to the call and a report from Voice of America, about 1,100 people joined solidarity groups formed by the Utopia.

On 29 July, Peking University Foreign Language Institute student Yue Xin and other activists published The Peking University Students on the "7-27 Worker Arrest in Shenzhen": the Letter of Solidarity, roughly thirty students and alumni of Tsinghua University signed The Letter of Solidarity: To Release the Detained Workers and the Masses Immediately, and other solidarity letters appeared on the Internet. They asked the Shenzhen police to release the arrested workers immediately and to explain and apologize for the relevant arrests. The letter of solidarity was deleted in less than three hours, by which time it already had tens of thousands of readings. In addition, the open letter issued by some activists received two thousand likes in support, mainly from mainland universities. On the same day, the Jasic company issued a statement denying that it had mistreated workers or prevented them from forming a union. The statement said the company fired some workers under the law and was in the process of establishing a union. Jasic did not respond to a faxed request for further comment from Reuters. In late July, former workers at the company allegedly took direct action against the Shenzhen plant, breaking into the factory and attempting to disrupt production by sabotage.

On 1 August, Amnesty International issued a statement in which a Chinese researcher, Pan Jiawei said that the authorities should solve the problem of exploitation of labour rights and respect workers' right to unionize, and moreover, barring evidence internationally recognized crimes had been committed, that the workers should be released. On the same morning, in Hong Kong, a total of about 30 members of the CTU, the HKCSS and the Street Labour Group marched from Western District police station to the Hong Kong Liaison Office, chanting slogans in solidarity with the Jasic workers. The CTU said it would plea for complaints from the international community in support of the protest and the establishment of independent unions. As the Central Liaison Office refused the protest letters, the demonstrators posted them and other slogans on the front door.

On Monday, 6 August 2018, a reported 80 supporters took part in a demonstration in front of the Yanziling police station. Among them were forty registered members of the Chinese Communist Party and retirees. The rally was largely organized through the popular leftist and Maoist online forum website Utopia. The protesters carried banners that read "Old Jiangxi old workers and old cadres support the workers and their supporters." Zhang Qinde, a retiree from the CCP's Central Policy Research Office and a Maoist intellectual, gave an unrehearsed speech, saying that "We must stand with the working classes and advance and retreat with the Jasic workers. We must see this struggle through till the end!"

On 11 August, Shen Mengyu, a graduate student from Sun Yat-sen University, was bundled into a car by three unidentified men and had since been missing. Students around Shen reported the abduction to the police, who doubted their story and told them that the video cameras in the area where the incident occurred were broken. Activists accused of the authorities' abduction, with the government insisting it was "a matter regarding a family dispute."

On 19 August, Peking University Yue Xin published an open letter to paramount leader and General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping reading,

On behalf of all members of the Solidarity Regiment, I said to the Party Central Committee and General Secretary Xi Jinping that all members of the Solidarity and I will strengthen political consciousness, strengthen the beliefs of Marxism–Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought, and firmly stand on the position of the great working class. We will resolutely safeguard China's socialist and people's democratic dictatorship. We will continue to fight until all the arrested workers are acquitted before the local evil forces are not investigated, and before the basic rights and legal status of the workers are guaranteed!

Neither Xi Jinping or any representative replied or acknowledged the letter.

Mass arrest

On the morning of 24 August 2018, police raided an apartment that served as a location for workers and students to organize, detaining about 50 people, who were singing L'Internationale at the time of being arrested. In the days that followed, the police went on raids throughout the country, arresting a number of students and workers. The New York Times reports that twelve student activists were missing according to family and relatives. According to relatives, the activists were abducted from Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Wuhan. According to some witnesses the activists were beaten.

On 9 September 2018, ten workers and students went to Shaoshan and paid homage to Mao Zedong. They pulled up a banner at the bronze statue square and laid flowers for the bronze statue of Mao Zedong, singing L'Internationale before being arrested by local police.

Throughout November, a dozen activists were detained, including two officials from the All-China Federation of Trade Unions who, according to workers, had helped them form a union. On December 26, Qiu Zhanxuan was taken away by police before he went to attend the 125th anniversary of Mao's birth in Beijing. The following day, the Peking University Marxist Society was forcibly "restructured", and Qiu, as president, said that none of the new staffs from the restructured Society were previous members of the group. Similar to the case of Peking University, Beijing Language and Culture University, Nanjing University and Renmin University of China also began to reorganize or close down their left-wing students associations. Students launched months-long demonstrations, which came to be known as the "Defensive War" for the student associations.

In January 2019, police summoned several activists and showed them an allegedly "forced confession" video in which four activists (including Yue and Qiu) claimed to renounce labor radicalism. Some activists later wrote blog posts criticizing the police's action, saying it was a "ridiculous performance put on by the police". Seven more people were taken away again.

Several organizers and student activists remain missing, including Yue Xin and Zhang Shengye.

Reactions

Chinese government

On 24 August 2018, China's official news agency Xinhua News Agency posted a report entitled "Behind the 'rights protection' of workers at Shenzhen Jasic Technology Co., Ltd." in Chinese, and "Investigation on so-called worker incidents in Shenzhen" in English, arguing the incident was instigated by foreign NGOs, especially an organization called "center for migrant workers". According to Xinhua, Yu and other people clashed with the police at the behest of Fu, an employee of the "center for migrant workers". According to the Chinese version, the "center for migrant workers" is funded by the Hong Kong-registered organization "Worker Empowerment".

Others

International human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have condemned the Chinese government's response to the Jasic protesters and has called for the release of all detainees involved in the demonstrations.

On 26 August, Ming Pao published an article quoting an unnamed member of the solidarity groups as saying that the groups had initially hoped that registered NGOs would join it, but those organizations were afraid of provoking the local government. The interviewed member of the solidarity groups also accused Xinhua of "fabricating stories" and using "foreign forces" to cover up the facts.

On 27 August, Worker Empowerment issued a statement saying that it "has not been involved in organizing or financing Jasic workers or their sympathizers", while at the same time stating that another organization, the center for migrant workers, "has been actively seeking to register with the Civil Affairs Bureau, and has gone to the relevant government departments to communicate with them about its application and has also gone to the local public security authorities to explain its filing".

The Jasic Workers and Jasic solidarity groups received internal support from Chinese figures such as Chinese labour activist Li Qiang and Professor Pan Yi of the Sociology Department of The University of Hong Kong, both of whom signed a petition calling for the release of the detained workers and students and an improvement in Chinese labor rights. Furthermore, according to The Guardian, the movement had gained a following within the Chinese political elite, particularly among retired party officials who opposed the economic policy of CCP general secretary Xi Jinping.

The Jasic workers' cause resonated particularly among leftists in the West, who sympathise with the workers' demands for better rights. Popular Marxist philosopher Slavoj Zizek condemned the Chinese government, in an article published in The Independent, stating that the Chinese suppression of these workers and students was proof of the ideological hypocrisy of The People's Republic of China and the governing Chinese Communist Party. At least thirty academics, including linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky and Yale University Political Philosophy professor John Roemer are boycotting Chinese Marxist academic conferences, citing that participation in the Chinese academic community following these suppression would be an act of complicity. Chomsky in statements released through The Financial Times stated that all leftists should join the boycott.

Jacobin columnists Elaine Hui of Pennsylvania State University and Eli Friedman condemned the suppression of the Jasic workers union and the student protesters.