Yue Xin is a Chinese feminist and Marxist activist in the People's Republic of China and graduate from Peking University. In 2018, Yue participated in #MeToo inspired protest against Peking University on sexual assault allegations and participated in the Jasic incident as a member of Jasic Workers Solidarity Group. The BBC: China described Yue Xin as one of the country's most influential left-wing activists. China Digital Times listed her as their person of the week. South China Morning Post listed Yue as one of the "disappeared" in China, along with Chinese actress Fan Bingbing, activist photographer Lu Guang, and former vice-minister of State Security Meng Hongwei.
Biography
Yue Xin was raised in the city of Beijing and graduated from High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China in 2014. She then entered Peking University and graduated in 2018. In an interview with Yazhou Zhoukan, Yue discussed much of her personal life, noting that she began to become interested in politics in middle school after reading Liu Yu's Details of Democracy. During this period in life, she described herself as a liberal, upon reaching high school she began to become more interested in the standards of living for workers and peasants. Yue also sets the definitive moment that she decided to become an activist was after witnessing The 2013 Southern Weekly incident. Yue listed among her primary influences were Chinese feminist activists Liu Yu and Xiao Mei.
Activism
Yue Xin was a student at Peking University in Beijing, School of Foreign Languages class of 2014. During her senior year she participated in a series of protests against the university's handling of sexual assault allegations and perpetuating predatory behavior in the faculty and staff. The controversy centered around the university's culpability in the death of Gao Yan, a Peking University Chinese literature student who committed suicide in 1998, who was allegedly raped by Professor Shen, a former professor of Peking University. On 9 April 2018, Yue issued a formal freedom of information request to the university requesting information pertaining to Gao Yan's death and the allegations against Shen Yang. According to Yue, in an open letter to all students and staff of Peking University, the campus staff took immediate actions to attempt to coerce Yue to retract her freedom of information request. She alleges on 20 April 2018 a school advisor came unannounced to her dorm room with Yue's mother, who had been presented a distorted form of the events in order to persuade her daughter to rescind her request. According to Yue, the university failed to provide any relevant materials regarding the allegations against Shen Yang, Peking University citing that the materials were either missing or out of their domain.
Jasic incident
On 8 August 2018 Yue joined the student labor activist organization Jasic Workers Solidarity Group in the protests in Huizhou, Guangdong at the Shenzhen Jasic Technology plantlabor dispute between the management of Jasic welder factory and the workers; the workers citing poor labor conditions and low pay attempted to form a labor union in violation of Chinese prohibition of non-state unions. The province of Guangdong is noteworthy for being the principal example of the Guangdong model, the economic policy initiated by Chinese politician Wang Yang. This policy focused on a policy of economic liberalization, while ignoring issues with industry practices and social welfare. The dispute led to numerous student activists, Yue among them, traveling to Huizhou to participate in protests against company and the Chinese government's policies towards labor rights.
Disappearance
Yue was among fifty members or supporters of the Jasic Workers Solidarity group to be arrested by Chinese police on 23 August 2018. As of 11 October, Yue has not been seen in public since her arrest by Chinese authorities. On 21 January 2019, a media report quoted the official website of the Jiashi Workers Support Group as saying that the Guangdong police forced Yue and four other members of the Christie Relief Group to record the confession of the film and admitted that "making illegal acts" was "radical." In addition, the National Security Department of the People's Republic of China interviewed some members of the Solidarity Regiment and asked them to watch this “guilty video”.
Reactions to detainment
Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek discussed the disappearance of Yue in an article published by The Independent. Zizek points out the inherent contradiction within Chinese society, wherein the official state ideology of Marxism is considered a dangerous form of political subversion. 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, in reaction to the suppression of university activists who participated in the Jasic incident. Chomsky wrote in a message to the Financial Times: "To continue to participate in officially sponsored Marxism-related events means we would stay complicit in the Chinese government's game. Leftist scholars around the world should join the boycott of such conferences and events." On 26 December 2018, the birthday of PRC founder Mao Zedong, Peking University student and head of the Peking University Marxist Society, Qiu Zhanxuan, was arrested by Chinese authorities.
