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FM AMCONSUL SHENYANG
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INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC 0079
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 0531

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 SHENYANG 000003 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/CM, DRL 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/07/2028 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV PINS SOCI CH
SUBJECT: PRC HUMAN RIGHTS: YAO FUXIN ABUSE ALLEGATIONS, 
HEALTH CONCERNS 
 
REF: 07 SHENYANG 95 AND PREVIOUS 
 
Classified By: CONSUL GENERAL STEPHEN B. WICKMAN.  REASONS: 
1.4(b)/(d). 
 
¶1. (C) SUMMARY: Health problems continue to beset 
imprisoned Liaoning labor activist Yao Fuxin, whose case 
has triggered high-level USG attention since his initial 
arrest in 2002.  In a letter to his daughter he recently 
managed to have smuggled out of prison, Yao for the first 
time described severe abuse he claims to have sustained, at 
the apparent direction of security officials, during his 
pre-trial detention in late 2002.  Yao's family remains 
under surveillance by police, and PRC authorities continue 
to refuse to accept the family's petitions for humanitarian 
medical parole.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (C) Poloff met on January 3 with YAO Dan (STRICTLY 
PROTECT), the daughter of imprisoned labor activist YAO 
Fuxin, whom PRC authorities in 2003 sentenced to seven 
years in prison on charges of subversion following a number 
of major labor protests he led in Liaoyang, Liaoning 
Province, in 2002 with XIAO Yunliang.  Both cases attracted 
substantial worldwide interest, particularly from prominent 
human rights and labor groups, as well as high-level USG 
officials.  Xiao was released in 2006; Yao's term is slated 
to end in March 2009. 
 
HEALTH PROBLEMS, ABUSE ALLEGATIONS 
---------------------------------- 
¶3. (C) Health problems continue to beset Yao Fuxin, now in 
his late 50s, in part because of abuse directed against him 
in the past by Liaoyang Public Security Bureau (PSB) 
officials, according to his daughter, who now visits him 
once per month at Lingyuan Prison, in a remote area of 
western Liaoning Province.  A heart attack in 2005 and 
ongoing high blood pressure have taken a heavy toll on 
Yao's health and well-being, one reason why authorities at 
Lingyuan Prison have exempted him from the compulsory work 
regime (i.e., manufacturing spare auto parts for the First 
Auto Works Lingyuan Automobile Manufacturing Company) in 
which other prisoners are required to "participate," 
according to Yao Dan.  Another persistent health problem-- 
numbness in his left leg--stems from abuse Yao Fuxin claims 
to have sustained in 2002, which he described for the first 
time in a recent letter he managed to have delivered to his 
daughter via a prisoner-friend who recently concluded his 
sentence. 
 
¶4. (C) During his pre-trial detention in late 2002, 
authorities at the Liaoyang Detention Center placed two or 
three non-political criminals in Yao's cell as de facto 
minders who restricted his interaction with others and, at 
the apparent instruction of at least some officials, 
severely abused him, according to the letter, described to 
Poloff by Yao Dan.  Yao Fuxin's cellmates allegedly beat 
him a number of times, tied him with steel chains and kept 
him awake for extended periods of time.  During bitterly 
cold months in a poorly-insulated cell, his cellmates also 
repeatedly poured icy water on his legs while restraining 
him, inducing severe aching--the genesis of Yao's lower- 
extremity numbness and the slow deterioration in his health 
that continues today.  One of the perpetrators apparently 
acknowledged (or suggested) to Yao Fuxin that the abuse was 
being directed by a Liaoyang PSB official surnamed Lang; 
the inmate explained that he and his cellmates had no 
choice but to comply with the official's orders. 
 
PAROLE PETITIONS DENIED, FAMILY SURVEILED 
----------------------------------------- 
¶5. (C) Yao Fuxin maintains his innocence and, according to 
his daughter, plans to protest his mistreatment through the 
official petition system once he is released in 2009.  In 
the meantime, Yao Dan is slated to meet next month with 
(and pass her father's letter to) MO Shaoping, the family's 
pro-bono, Beijing-based attorney, whose attempts thus far 
to finesse a humanitarian medical parole have run aground. 
So, too, have the Yao family's attempts to petition at the 
local, provincial and national levels; in some cases, Yao 
Dan reports, petition-office officials have simply refused 
to accept her paperwork, pointing to instructions to do so 
from "higher levels." 
 
¶6. (C) Yao Dan and her mother remain under some 
surveillance by Liaoyang PSB officers, who "accompany" them 
at times in their hometown of Liaoyang and as far afield as 
Beijing.  During major local and national political events, 
 
SHENYANG 00000003  002 OF 002 
 
 
scrutiny increases substantially, with police closely 
watching her around the clock, Yao noted. 
WICKMAN