Case built against China activists probing Trump
TWO days after the State Department called for the release of three activists detained while investigating working conditions at factories that make shoes for Ivanka Trump, Chinese authorities appear not to be backing off the case.
ReportspublishedonWednesday morning by the Communist Party-controlled press claimed the three men, Su Heng, Li Zhao and Hua Haifeng, are being investigated for selling commercial secrets to unnamed foreign organisations.
A detailed report in the Paper, a website controlled by the Shanghai city government, claimed the men took jobs at factories and then used “hidden camera watches” and other devices to gather information and send it abroad.
The account included a picture of evidence reportedly seized by police: two watches, some thumb drives, a battery and a cellphone. It also said the men had confessed. The men are in detention and have yet to be formally charged.
The use of the party-controlled press to build a public case against activists will renew concern about how China treats human rights campaigners and uses its courts. The back and forth between Beijing and Washington could also complicate US-China ties under President Trump.
The current standoff started when three activists were detained while preparing a report about working conditions at Huajian shoe factories for China Labor Watch, a New York-based nonprofit organisation that aims to defend workers’ rights.
China Labor Watch’s founder, Li Qiang, told the Washington Post last month that CLW investigators have been questioned and stopped from travelling over the years, but never detained.
“This never happened before in my 17 years’ experience,” he said then. “The only reason we think this case is different is that this is Ivanka Trump’s factory.”
On Wednesday, he said he now worries the men could face serious charges.
If the Chinese government indeed pursues the case, it could stop others from conducting investigations that have helped hold multinational companies accountable, said William Nee, a researcher with Amnesty International in Hong Kong.
“It could be that the Chinese government is now signalling that they are no longer tolerating this sort of workers’ rights research,” he said.
While Chinese police routinely target rights campaigners, the Trump connection quickly turned the China Labor Watch case into international news, calling attention to working conditions in Chinese factories.
On Monday, the State Department urged Chinese authorities to either let the activists go or afford them the right to fair trial. A spokesperson stressed that labour activists have been instrumental in helping US companies understand conditions in their supply chains.
A spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday dismissed US concerns, saying it was an internal matter. On Wednesday, Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman for the China’s Foreign Ministry, said she had no new information on the case.
Calls to the local police and the shoe manufacturer’s public relations department went unanswered.
Behind the scenes, Chinese authorities seem to be stepping up pressure by isolating the activists and threatening their families.
Deng Guilian, wife of Hua Haifeng, said her husband was being held in a cell with about 20 inmates who had all been told not to talk to him.
She called on Ivanka Trump to issue a statement calling for her husband’s release. “For her, it’s just a matter of a few words, but those few words would save the entire family,” she said.