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FM AMCONSUL SHENYANG
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INFO RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 8356
RUEHCN/AMCONSUL CHENGDU 0917
RUEHGZ/AMCONSUL GUANGZHOU 0012
RUEHHK/AMCONSUL HONG KONG 3211
RUEHGH/AMCONSUL SHANGHAI 0340
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC 0260
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 0572

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. 
 
-------------------------------- 
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. 
 
-------------------- 
"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. 
 
----------------------------- 
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. 
 
------------------------- 
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. 
 
---------------------- 
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