The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online. The name of the issuing body has been omitted to protect the source.
All websites: As sentencing for the second group of people involved in the “Jasic Workers’ Rights Defense Incident” case begins, without exception, do not report, repost, or comment. (April 21, 2019) [Chinese]
Since last summer, dozens of labor activists and student supporters have been detained, either with criminal charges or having simply been “disappeared” in a series of roundups. Among them are students and graduates of elite universities, some violently “kidnapped” from public university campuses by thugs. Many of those detained in August and November 2018 roundups were self-described Marxists–like Yue Xin and Sun Min, both Peking University graduates–who had been actively supporting Jasic Technology workers in an ongoing labor dispute in Shenzhen. In January, at least five more high profile activists were detained, as was Yang Zhengjun, the editor-in-chief of the ilabour.net news site. Last month ilabour.net editor Wei Zhili and his colleague Ke Chengbing were also detained. The AFP’s Pak Yiu reports 100 Chinese workers who suffer from a work-related disease have signed a petition for the release of the three ilabour.net activists:
“They’re not guilty — they have caring hearts and because of that they face pressure from the government,” said Gu Fuxiang, one of the workers who signed the petition.
“I’ve been thinking, this isn’t what my country is about. They should look after us,” he told AFP.
Hundreds of migrant workers, mainly from central Hunan province, protested last year for compensation in Shenzhen after contracting silicosis, a deadly lung disease, when they helped transform the southern city from a fishing village into one of China’s biggest tech hubs.
When workers were ignored by the government and pressured to stop protesting, the three labour activists were there for support, said Gu. […] [Source]
