Chinese authorities have detained a dozen labour activists over recent days in the latest clampdown on efforts to organise workplaces in China, rights groups said.

Beijing has taken an uncompromising line against efforts to establish independent labour unions in southern Guangdong province, the epicentre of China's high-tech manufacturing sector.

The campaign is backed by campus Marxist groups at some of China's most prestigious universities -- several leaders of which have been arrested or disappeared in recent months.

Another seven students and recent graduates from two elite Beijing universities were arrested on Monday, according to labour rights organisation Jasic Workers Solidarity.

The students were rounded up hours after publishing a statement accusing police of recording forced video confessions of previously detained student activists who had supported the Guangdong union campaign, the rights group said.

They had accused police of organising recent screenings of the videos, in which their subjects confessed to using worker issues to "subvert the state", on several campuses in an effort to deter further student activism.

The viewings targeted students who were members of Jasic Workers Solidarity -- a group which rose to prominence last year when it attempted to form a workers' union at a welding machinery company in Guangdong.

Dozens of people who had supported the Jasic Technology strike last summer remain in detention.

A day earlier, five labour activists were taken into custody on Sunday as part of a crackdown targeting trade union organising in Shenzhen, the Hong Kong-based China Labour Bulletin (CLB) said Tuesday.

Three were then charged with disturbing public order while the status of the other two was unclear, CLB said, adding that all five were veterans of workers' rights campaigns in Shenzhen.

It was unclear whether the raid was linked with Monday's arrests in Beijing.

The detained activists were not directly involved with the ongoing Jasic dispute, but the incident has made authorities nervous about future labour campaigns, CLB spokesperson Geoffrey Crothall told AFP.

Shenzhen has seen more than a dozen strikes and protests in the city since October last year, Crothall said, adding that authorities in the region were nervous about labour activism in the city.

Chinese police and the Shenzhen public security bureau did not respond to requests for comment on the arrests.

Related Links
China News from SinoDaily.com

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

China's ageing elite live golden years in style
Beijing (AFP) Jan 22, 2019
At a gated community for Chinese senior citizens, retired military personnel, film-makers and top university professors settle into a new routine: ballet lessons, weightlifting and catered dining. As China's population ages rapidly and the one-child policy left parents with only a single child to help them in their old age, the upper crust of Chinese society are spending the last years of their lives in luxury. A grand piano backlit by floor-to-ceiling windows stands in the Yanyuan community's c ... read more