(15 May 2010) - This Centre has learned that more than a thousand staff and workers of Luohe Shuanglong Spinning and Weaving Company Ltd. in Henan Province blocked streets in the area of Renmin Road, Jinshan Road, and Songshan Road in the city of Luohe yesterday and today, protesting that the factory has not paid old age insurance contributions for the staff and workers. The former state-owned enterprise, which employs 4,000 people, was restructured and sold repeatedly, and has debts of 300 million RMB. Meanwhile, the three successive Party secretaries of Luohe City in the 16 years from 1991 and 2006 were all involved in corruption. Social contradictions arising from structural factors in China have intensified, and various unforeseeable situations such as the kindergarten incident could spark a recurrence of the "4 June" movement of 21 years ago.

This Centre has learned that this former state-owned enterprise was sold three times after restructuring in 1998, and the company has not made old age insurance contributions for its staff and workers for two years now. The company owes huge debts of 300 million RMB, and it is possible that 4,000 of its idle workers will soon lose their jobs. Starting at noon yesterday, as many as a thousand workers paralysed transportation throughout the city by blocking Jinshan Road, Renmin Road, and Songshan Road. The road blockage continued until 2200 hours in the evening. Workers again began blocking roads early this morning at [handwriting illegible; 1 a.m.?], and the blockage continues. It is expected that the strike and road blockage will continue into next week, because the Luohe city government simply cannot meet the workers' demand.

Three successive Party committee secretaries of Luohe were brought down by corruption over a period of 16 years. The first one, Wang Youjie (1991-1995), received a suspended death sentence in 2007 for taking bribes and unidentified property worth 15 million RMB. The second, Cheng Sanchang (1995-1999), fled to New Zealand in 2001 after pocketing a huge sum of up to 10 million RMB following the selloff of 90 per cent of the city's state-owned enterprises. And the third, Liu Bingwang (1999-2006), was sentenced by the Higher Court of Henan Province to 17 years in prison in December 2009 for taking bribes and unidentified property worth 6 million RMB. When Wang Youjie was the city's Party secretary, Cheng Sanchang was the mayor. After Cheng Sanchang took over from Wang Youjie, Liu Bingwang became mayor.

The most important cause of the "4 June" movement which erupted 21 years ago was bureaucratic profiteering and corruption, and the students' most important political demand was to use mechanisms to stop corruption. But the students' demand was crushed by tanks. China has never had a way to solve the problem of corruption, and the anger over the social injustice resulting from corruption is getting deeper and deeper. Although five tragic cases which have occurred recently on school grounds were criminal cases, every qualified expert on China issues perceives huge contradictions in society. The venting of public fury such as in the "4 June" movement could erupt again.

Source: Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, Hong Kong, in Chinese 15 May 10