subversion
Monday, June 12 7:23 PM SGT
Researcher into laid-off workers in China investigated for subversion
BEIJING, June 12 (AFP) -
A man who conducted research into the massive number of workers being laid off in China's state-owned enterprises has been arrested and is being investigated for subversion, a human rights group said Monday.
Feng Daxun, a 59-year-old former journalist from China's southwestern Sichuan province, was arrested on December 16, a day after police found him talking to participants of a 2,000-strong protest in the province's Nei Jiang city, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.
Feng was at the scene asking the workers from the Sichuan Nei Jiang Machine Tool Factory about the cause of the protest and their views on the government's three-year plan to close, merge or restructure inefficient and money-losing state-owned companies.
The workers, who had not been paid for a year, blocked a highway.
Feng was accused of inciting the workers to stage further protests.
The rights group in statement faxed to Beijing said Feng had been charged with subversion and was facing a prison sentence of 10 years or more.
But an official with Nei Jiang city's procuratorate told AFP that Feng's case was still being investigated and that the case might be sent back to the police for further investigation because there was insufficient evidence to charge him.
"It depends on how our investigation goes," said the official who identified himself only as Mr. Zheng.
Feng is being kept in a detention center.
Mr. Zheng said Feng had also written open letters to Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji as well as essays criticizing the government. But there was no evidence Feng widely distributed his writings, he said.
The Information Center said Feng had served five years in prison for pro-democracy activities. He worked as a reporter for 10 years and continued to freelance after retiring in the 1980's.
Since October 1998, three dissidents have been imprisoned for between seven to 10 years for revealing information about workers' protest, including one who was interviewed by Radio Free Asia, the rights group said.
Labour protests are one of the most common types of demonstrations in China. Last year, the number of protests rose nearly 70 percent from 60,000 in 1998 to 100,000, according to government statistics obtained by the Information Center.
The rise in the number of demonstrations is causing concern for the country's leadership, which has in recent months frequently espoused the importance of maintaining social stability and paying workers and retirees' wages and pensions on time and in full.