{"id":25440,"date":"2020-11-06T04:50:54","date_gmt":"2020-11-05T20:50:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/?p=25440"},"modified":"2020-11-06T23:14:27","modified_gmt":"2020-11-06T15:14:27","slug":"china-state-repression-against-left-activists-escalates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2020\/11\/06\/25440\/","title":{"rendered":"China: State repression against left activists escalates"},"content":{"rendered":"

Drop the charges against Chai Xiaoming<\/strong><\/p>\n

chinaworker.info<\/a>\u00a0(ISA in China) reporters<\/p>\n

On 14 August, left activist Chai Xiaoming was tried secretly by the Intermediate Court in the eastern city of Nanjing on the charge of \u201cinciting subversion of state power\u201d. The verdict and sentence of the court have not been made public but the Nanjing Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office submitted a proposal of 3 to 5 years in prison. It is understood that Chai\u2019s lawyers signed a confidentiality agreement with the authorities to ensure information about his case is not leaked.<\/p>\n

This case against Chai is a monstrous injustice and is symptomatic of a wider crackdown on Maoist and Trotskyist youth by the Chinese dictatorship (CCP). In October, veteran Maoist Meng Xianda, an editor of the website People\u2019s Voice (\u4eba\u6c11\u4e4b\u58f0), was detained for questioning and subsequently released. While the cases are not directly connected, Meng like Chai had been a vocal supporter of the Jasic workers\u2019 struggle in Shenzhen in 2018.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Chai Xiaoming<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chai Xiaoming is a self-professed Trotskyist. For a period around a decade ago he often took part in discussions with the CWI (as ISA was called until 2020) and\u00a0chinaworker.info<\/a>\u00a0(\u4e2d\u56fd\u52b3\u5de5\u8bba\u575b) although he subsequently broke all contact citing political disagreements. At the time of his arrest in 2019, Chai was an editor for the left \u201cMaoist\u201d website, Red Reference (\u7ea2\u8272\u53c2\u8003).<\/p>\n

Most expensive police state<\/strong><\/p>\n

Secret trials in China mean that a defendant\u2019s family, friends and media are excluded. In many cases the defendant is appointed a lawyer rather than choosing their own. A secret trial is ordered when the dictatorship ordains that offences committed involve \u201cstate secrets\u201d.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s justice system, with courts strictly controlled by the CCP, has a conviction rate of over 99 percent. Court statistics from 2006 to 2016 show that less than 0.2 percent of defendants were acquitted. In other words, going to court almost always assures a guilty verdict. Furthermore most trials rely heavily on confessions, which especially in political cases are often obtained under torture or duress. This can include threats to punish family members, friends or associates if the defendant doesn\u2019t \u201ccooperate\u201d with the authorities. All the above is routine in the CCP-controlled judicial system.<\/p>\n

As China has developed into the world\u2019s second most powerful capitalist economy it has become more repressive and dictatorial, assembling the world\u2019s most expensive police state. The government\u2019s budget for internal security (\u201cstability maintenance\u201d) is bigger than its military budget. In 2019, the last available figure, 1.39 trillion yuan (210 billion US dollars) was allocated to internal security, a sum not so far below the healthcare budget of 1.64 trillion yuan (248 billion US dollars).<\/p>\n

No details of Chai Xiaoming\u2019s case have been made public, but his period of detention by state security officials began in March 2019, seventeen months before the case went to court. His arrest was formalised in September 2019, indicating a six-month period before the case against him became official. This also fits the pattern for the CCP\u2019s persecution of political dissidents, with long periods of detention prior to trial during which confessions are extracted and in many cases victims are coerced into \u201ccooperating\u201d to avoid a harsher sentence.<\/p>\n

Jasic Struggle<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chai\u2019s case is linked to the historic Jasic struggle, when leftist youth and activists from across China campaigned for trade union rights for a group of workers at a Shenzhen machine factory. This struggle was viciously suppressed by the Chinese dictatorship, revealing it\u2019s thoroughly anti-working class character.<\/p>\n

Jasic bosses refused to countenance the formation of a trade union at the factory (independent trade unions are illegal in China). They sacked and used hired thugs to beat up the workers\u2019 main spokespersons. The political realities of China\u2019s authoritarian capitalist system are clearly shown by the stark contrast between how workers and capitalists are treated. Jia Lei, the owner of Jasic Technology, and the company\u2019s personnel manager Guo Liqun, are both \u201cdelegates\u201d to Shenzhen\u2019s People\u2019s Committee, nominally the city\u2019s \u201cparliament\u201d which is selected by the CCP.<\/p>\n

More than 80 youth and workers have been arrested or disappeared in the police crackdown that followed the Jasic workers\u2019 struggle. Red Reference was one of several left websites that helped to spread publicity about the case, something that enraged the Chinese regime.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Shenzhen 2018: Protest by Jasic Support Group<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By the end of 2018 the CCP authorities had launched a nationwide crackdown on university campuses, closing down many \u2018Marxist Societies\u2019 due to the alleged role these played in channelling support for the Jasic struggle. Prominent leaders among the students were forced to appear in filmed \u201cconfessions\u201d after months of police detention. It was also at around this time that Chai was arrested.<\/p>\n

Chai Xiaoming\u2019s only crime is to stand up for workers\u2019 rights and protest the brutal repression of workers and fellow socialists in China. The increasingly draconian measures of Xi Jinping\u2019s regime against leftist youth and older activists shows that despite its attempts to project strength and stability, it dreads the growth in support for socialist ideas. For the new generation of Chinese left and socialist youth, Chai\u2019s persecution only gives more reasons to organise and fight against capitalism and dictatorship.<\/p>\n

Previous articles on the Jasic Struggle:<\/h3>\n

\u27b3 The Jasic struggle and the Left in China<\/a><\/h5>\n
\u27b3 Chinese regime cracks down on \u2018Maoist\u2019-linked workers\u2019 movement<\/a><\/h5>\n
\u27b3 Regime Escalates Police Terror Against Jasic Support Group<\/a><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Drop the charges against Chai Xiaoming<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":25444,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[132,124],"tags":[9855,3703,12496,11781,1633,2808],"class_list":{"0":"post-25440","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-china","8":"category-news","9":"tag-dictatorship","10":"tag-independent-trade-unions","11":"tag-jasic-support-group","12":"tag-police-state","13":"tag-repression","14":"tag-socialism"},"yoast_head":"\nChina: State repression against left activists escalates - China Worker<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2020\/11\/06\/25440\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"China: State repression against left activists escalates - 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