Present classification: Former / released · Region: Mainland China
Yue Tianxiang (岳天祥) is a labor-rights activist from Tianshui, Gansu, and a former political prisoner.
Yue was a driver at the state-owned Tianshui City Transport Company. According to Amnesty International, he and fellow driver Guo Xinmin were laid off in 1995 while the company owed them three months’ back pay, and the company refused to negotiate over unpaid wages and living allowances. The two took the case to the Tianshui Labour Disputes and Arbitration Committee; Amnesty reported that management did not comply with the reinstatement order.
China Workers Monitor
In January 1999, Yue set up the newsletter China Workers Monitor (《中国工人观察》) together with Guo Xinmin and Wang Fengshan to expose alleged mismanagement and corruption at the transport company and defend the rights of laid-off workers. Amnesty reported that the three also wrote a petition to then-President Jiang Zemin asking for official intervention and sent it to international news agencies. Amnesty International and the Committee to Protect Journalists reported that the three men were members of the banned China Democracy Party.
Imprisonment and release
On July 5, 1999, the Tianshui People’s Intermediate Court in Gansu Province sentenced Yue to ten years’ imprisonment for “subverting state power,” according to Amnesty and the Committee to Protect Journalists. Guo Xinmin and Wang Fengshan were each sentenced to two years. Amnesty reported Yue was believed held in Tianshui No. 2 Prison.
The Committee to Protect Journalists reported in February 2008 that Yue was freed on January 8, 2008, after his sentence was reduced in 2005, citing the Dui Hua Foundation. The original sentence-reduction order and release instrument have not been recovered, so those details remain source-attributed.
Sources
- Amnesty International — Detained and Imprisoned Labour Rights Activists (2002)
- Committee to Protect Journalists — Releases in China cautiously welcomed (2008)
- Committee to Protect Journalists — Attacks on the Press 2005
Media Profile & Archive: Media Profile & Archive — Yue Tianxiang (岳天祥).