Beijing keeps Maoists, leftists under pressure amid release of Jasic labour activists
Oct 29, 2021
Beijing [China] October 29 : In a bid to keep up the pressure on Maoist leftists in the country, the Chinese authorities have not released a top Maoist editor who was detained during a labour rights movement at the Jasic Technology factory in China's Shenzhen city.
Chai Xiaoming, a former editor at the Maoist website Red Reference, has been in detention since his initial detention in 2019 by Chinese police, initially under 'residential surveillance at a designated location', Radio Free Asia reported.
However, several people connected to the Maoist faction in the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) also informed Radio Free Asia (RFA) that Wu Lijie, the editor of the Maoist Red Flag Network was recently released from prison after being sentenced amid a 2018 crackdown on a Maoist-led labour movement at the Jasic Technology factory in the southern city of Shenzhen.
"Wu Yishan got out after three years just recently," a Maoist said adding that "another guy, Chai Xiaoming, is still being held in Nanjing Detention Center; he's been there for two years and seven months."
Meanwhile, at least 44 labour activists, students, and recent graduates of China's top universities have been 'disappeared' or detained since the nationwide crackdown on the Jasic labour movement, which started in July 2018 and continued with further waves of arrests and detentions in August, September, November, and January, Radio Free Asia reported.
In July 2018, police in Guangdong province had detained several workers at Jasic Technology, a welding equipment manufacturer in the city of Shenzhen, after they attempted to form an autonomous union under the auspices of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, the sole legal vehicle for workers' rights in China, Human Rights Watch informed.
The workers had long complained about low wages, poor working conditions, and management abuses.
After learning about the arrests on social media, dozens of concerned college students and recent graduates from across the country went to Shenzhen to protest. Wearing T-shirts with portraits of workers and singing socialist anthems, the students said that they were "Marxist" and they 'stood with workers', Human Rights Watch said.
