SCMP 24 October 2003
By TED ANTHONY
Associated Press Writer
BEIJING (AP) - Two laid-off factory workers convicted of subversion after leading labor protests in China's industrial northeast last year are being systematically mistreated in prison and are in increasingly grave condition, a monitoring group alleged Friday.
The health of Xiao Yunliang and Yao Fuxin has ``deteriorated rapidly'' since they were sent to Lingyuan Prison in the northeastern province of Liaoning earlier this month, China Labor Bulletin reported in an ``urgent appeal.'' It urged supporters to write letters on the men's behalf.
Xiao has been beaten by other prisoners on one guard's order, the group said, and he was placed in solitary confinement after complaining.
Both men have expressed the belief that they will die in prison, the group said. It cited informed sources and family members who it said visited the men in prison Wednesday.
``Their hopes of surviving their prison sentences are diminishing daily due to the lack of medical treatment they are receiving and the seriousness of their underlying medical conditions,'' the group said.
Yao and Xiao were arrested last year after tens of thousands of laid-off workers demanded better benefits from bankrupt state-owned factories in protests in Liaoyang, an industrial base in Liaoning. They were among the largest protests reported since China's 1949 communist revolution.
State media said after their trial that the men were convicted of subversion for trying to set up a Liaoyang branch of the would-be opposition China Democratic Party that hoped to challenge the Communist Party's monopoly on political power.
Protests by laid-off workers have grown common amid mass layoffs and closures of state industries across China. Authorities often disperse them by arresting organizers and offering some concessions. China's communist government doesn't permit workers to organize outside of state-controlled unions.
Xiao is ``so ill and blind that he has been denied exercise rights as there are no guards available to lead him around the exercise yard,'' the group said. It said he spends all his time in a cell he shares with three other men and has high blood pressure, lung problems and heart disease.
Yao ``has already lost consciousness twice since his move to Lingyuan over two weeks ago,'' the group said. Guards reportedly told his family he is also unable to exercise because authorities are worried that if he loses consciousness again, they might be unable to resuscitate him.
He is having heart, foot and ear problems and is receiving nothing more than basic medication, China Labor Bulletin said.
``Although the guards at Lingyuan appear to be sympathetic, there is little they can do to help the men in their current state of health,'' the group said.
The China Democratic Party was suppressed and its leaders arrested soon after they announced its formation in 1998. Relatives of the Xiao and Yao denied they had tried to set up a party branch and said they had only passing contact with the group.