In the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, on the evening of 3 December 2015, police began rounding up labour NGO staff and worker representatives. Though such police action is not unprecedented, the degree of co-ordination was unexpected. Some suggested that orders for the crackdown had come directly from central government agencies in Beijing. In total, 23 people were questioned and five key labour activists charged with ‘gathering crowds in a public place’ or ‘embezzlement’. Two of them, Zeng Feyang and Meng Han, remain in detention without regular access to lawyers.
The crackdown has been interpreted as a warning to labour activists and NGOs to stop building transnational support networks, or accepting funding from foreign organizations. It also appears to be part of a wider closing-down of space for civil-society organizations that has involved the detention or disappearance of feminist activists, human rights defenders, lawyers and journalists.
