Jasic incident


The Jasic incident was a labor rights conflict in Pingshan District, Shenzhen of the Guangdong province of The People's Republic of China between labor organizers and Chinese authorities that lasted from July to August 2018.
The conflict which consisted on public demonstrations, labor strikes, and direct action beginning on 27 July 2018 when a group of workers of Jasic Technology Co., Ltd., dissatisfied by low pay, poor working conditions, and long shifts sought to form a labor union. Jasic responded to the workers petition by firing the employees. This sparked two weeks of protests and demonstrations drawing from both factory workers in Shenzhen along with student members of JASIC Workers Solidarity Group and sympathizers. The protests have been described as being largely Marxist and Maoist in nature.

Background

Shenzhen Jasic Technology Co., Ltd. was founded in 2005 and later listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, the company is chiefly involved in the fabrication of various welder and welding products. The company has factories in Shenzhen, Chongqing, Chengdu and other locations, including the Shenzhen plant which employs about 1,000 people. Pan Lei serves as Chief Executive Officer of Jasic, along with CFO Xia Ruyi, and board secretary Rui Li.
Guangdong Province in China was notable for implementing the Guangdong model pursued by Politburo member Wang Yang, which emphasized privatization and reduction in state spending over social welfare programs. The Guangdong model stood in opposition to the Chongqing model employed by now incarcerated Chinese politician Bo Xilai, whose governance employed expanded state spending, increased social welfare spending, and the promotion of socialist culture.
With the introduction of capitalist reforms by Deng Xiaoping many party hardliners and Maoists have been critical of the reform citing them as being "revisionist" and anti-Socialist. After The Suppression of The 1989 Tian'anmen Square protests university students have generally been supportive of the reforms. As economic growth stagnates and income inequality grows within China more students have begun to express interest in Far-left politics, particularly that of Marxism and Maoism. Protestors stated they were influenced primarily by May Fourth Movement of 1919 in China.
Factory workers refer to illegal activities such as overtime work, strict fines, and owing to the provident fund. They hope to establish their own trade unions to protect their rights and interests. In May 2018, several workers at the Shenzhen Jasic Technology factory citing poor working conditions, illegal mandatory overtime work, and excessive fines, attempted to form an labor union for the factory. When the workers issued their petition to the All-China Federation of Trade Unions their request was swiftly rejected, the workers began to form a union anyway. Tensions began to rise on 27 July, as 14 workers involved in the labor dispute were arrested while attempting to return to work, including significant members of the labor organization.

Details

On 29 July, Peking University Foreign Language Institute student Yue Xin and other activists published The Peking University Students on the "7-27 Worker Arrest in Shenzhen": the Letter of Solidarity, roughly thirty students and alumni of Tsinghua University signed The Letter of Solidarity: To Release the Detained Workers and the Masses Immediately, and other solidarity letters appeared on the Internet. They asked the Shenzhen police to release the arrested workers immediately and to explain and apologize for the relevant arrests. The letter of solidarity was deleted in less than three hours, by which time it already had tens of thousands of readings. In addition, the open letter issued by some activists received two thousand likes in support, mainly from mainland universities. In late July, former workers at the company allegedly took direct action against the Shenzhen plant, breaking into the factory and attempting to disrupt production by sabotage.
On 1 August, Amnesty International issued a statement in which a Chinese researcher, Pan Jiawei said that the authorities should solve the problem of exploitation of labor rights and respect workers' right to unionize, and moreover, barring evidence internationally recognized crimes had been committed, that the workers should be released. On the same morning, in Hong Kong, a total of about 30 members of the CTU, the HKCSS and the Street Labour Group marched from Western District police station to the Hong Kong Liaison Office, chanting slogans in solidarity with the Jasic workers. The CTU said it would plea for complaints from the international community in support of the protest and the establishment of independent unions. As the Central Liaison Office refused the protest letters, the demonstrators posted them and other slogans on the front door.
On Monday, 6 August 2018, a reported 80 supporters took part in a demonstration in front of the Yanziling police station. Among them were forty registered members of the Communist Party of China and retirees. The rally was largely organized through the popular leftist and Maoist online forum website Utopia. The protesters carried banners that read "Old Jiangxi old workers and old cadres support the workers and their supporters."
On 19 August, Peking University Yue Xin published an open letter to paramount leader and General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Xi Jinping reading,

On behalf of all members of the Solidarity Regiment, I said to the Party Central Committee and General Secretary Xi Jinping that all members of the Solidarity and I will strengthen political consciousness, strengthen the beliefs of Marxism–Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought, and firmly stand on the position of the great working class. We will resolutely safeguard China's socialist and people's democratic dictatorship. We will continue to fight until all the arrested workers are acquitted, before the local evil forces are not investigated, and before the basic rights and legal status of the workers are guaranteed!

Neither Xi Jinping or any representative replied or acknowledged the letter.

Arrest of activists

The Guardian reported on 24 August 2018 that fifty students who were involved in the demonstrations had gone missing after Chinese police raided an apartment that served as a location for workers and students to organize. The New York Times reports that twelve student activists were missing according to family and relatives. According to relatives, the activists were abducted from Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Wuhan. According to some witnesses the activists were beaten.
Several organizers and student activist remain missing, including Yue Xin and Zhang Shangye.

Reactions

International human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have condemned the Chinese government's response to the Jasic protesters and has called for the release of all detainees involved in the demonstrations.
The Jasic Workers and Jasic Solidarity received internal support from Chinese figures such as Chinese labor activist Li Qiang and Professor Pan Yi of the Sociology Department of The University of Hong Kong, both of who signed a petition calling for the release of the detained workers and students and an improvement in Chinese labor rights. Further, according to The Guardian, the movement had gained a following within the Chinese political elite, particularly among retired party officials who opposed the economic policy of Party general secretary Xi Jinping.
The Jasic cause has resonated particularly among Leftists in America and Europe, who sympathize with the workers demands for better rights. Popular Marxist philosopher Slavoj Zizek condemned the Chinese government, in an article published in The Independent, stating that the Chinese suppression of these workers and students was proof of the ideological hypocrisy of The People's Republic of China and the governing Communist Party of China. At least thirty academics, including linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky and Yale University Political Philosophy professor John Roemer are boycotting Chinese Marxist academic conferences, citing that participation in the Chinese academic community following these suppression would be an act of complicity. Chomsky in statements released through The Financial Times stated that all leftists should join the boycott.
Jacobin columnists Elaine Hui of Pennsylvania State University and Eli Friedman condemned the suppression of the Jasic workers union and the student protesters.