[Onthebarricades] CHINA Addendum - Oct 2008

[global resistance roundup]

* Shanghai: Protesters support alleged cop killer
* Beijing: Petitioners arrested near party forum
* Guangning, Zhaoqing - Police attack construction site protest
* Beijing: "Scuffles" at protest over get-rich-quick scam
* Yantai: workers fight for union reps
* Guangzhou - more on toy factory protest





http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24489161-12335,00.html

Protesters show support for cop killer
 From correspondents in Shanghai | October 13, 2008
Article from: Agence France-Presse
PROTESTERS staged a rare demonstration outside a Shanghai court today in 
support of a jobless man who is appealing against his conviction for 
murdering six policemen.
Around a dozen people staged a brief protest at the beginning of the 
closed-door trial of Yang Jia, 28, who was sentenced to death last month 
for the murders.

Yang stormed into a Shanghai police station on July 1 and went on a 
stabbing frenzy, reportedly in revenge for being wrongfully detained on 
suspicion of stealing a bicycle.

Chinese authorities gave out few details of the appeal and court 
officials refused to comment today, continuing the secretive handling of 
a case that has generated controversy with Yang regarded by some as a 
victim.

Yang had become an internet cult hero because his case raised questions 
about police harassment.

In the street outside Shanghai's Higher People's Court, the protesters 
were taken away by police after donning T-shirts with Yang's face on 
them and a quote from him reading: "If you don't give me a reason then I 
will teach you a lesson".

"We are just ordinary people concerned about Yang Jia's fate. We want to 
know the truth but they were shutting off all the access," Liang Yin, 
one of the protesters said. She hid her T-shirt to avoid being taken 
into custody.

Huang Xuemin, a grey-haired protester, complained police beat her when 
she tried to enter the court premises.

"You see how police were treating us, and you could imagine how badly 
Yang Jia must be treated," she said, showing the assembled crowd 
scratches on her forearms that she said were from her scuffle with police.

Police officials were not immediately available for comment.
Lawyer Zhai Jian, who was appointed by the court to defend Yang at the 
second trial, said his client's fate would largely depend on a new round 
of psychiatric assessments, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Prosecutors said previously that Yang confessed to attacking the 
district police headquarters because he wanted revenge for being 
wrongfully detained overnight in October 2007 on suspicion of stealing a 
bicycle.






http://en.epochtimes.com/n2/china/hundreds-protest-outside-party-plenary-session-china-5451.html

Hundreds Protest Outside Party’s Plenary Session in China
By Gu Qing’er
Epoch Times Staff Oct 9, 2008
Share: Facebook Digg del.icio.us StumbleUpon

Appellants Gather outside railway station preparing to go to Jingxi 
hotel to appeal (The Epoch Times)

BEIJING—The third Plenary Session of the 17th Communist Party of China 
Central Committee, was planned to last four days and started in 
Beijing’s Jingxi Hotel on Oct. 9. Plain-clothes and uniformed police 
patrolled the area in and out of the hotel.
Over 100 appellants from across the country were outside the hotel 
hoping to express their pleas to party representatives but were quickly 
apprehended by Beijing police before they even reached the location 
where the session was to be held.
One witness said that the security was especially tight today. At around 
10 a.m., a huge squad of plain-clothed and uniformed policemen suddenly 
made their move to arrest appellants who gathered near Beijing’s 
Military Museum, apprehending more than 20 local appellants and then 
arrested appellants who came from elsewhere. By 11 p.m., police had 
already dispatched two large bus-loads of appellants to the Majialou 
Appellant Escort Center.
A Beijing resident said that not one single appellant was able to make 
it to Jingxi hotel’s entrance. Police asked people to take detours as 
soon as anyone was about 100 meters from the hotel. They had already 
made arrangements today to launch large-scale arrests. Out of 
disappointment people shouted outside the hotel, “Bring down the 
Communist Party.”
Jingxi hotel is located at Changan West Street in Beijing, which is 
across the China Millennium Monument, the Central Television Complex, 
and the Military Museum. Jingxi Hotel is often chosen by the Chinese 
Communist Party (CCP) to hold important meetings, and is considered the 
safest hotel in Beijing.

At 100 meter from the hotel, a police signal passerby to take detours 
(The Epoch Times)
People often say that this is not an ordinary hotel that anyone can come 
and go into easily because its management and security are of the same 
level as Zhongnanhai Compound and the Great Hall of the People.
Beijing resident Zhou Li said, “I showed up at around 9:00 a.m. and 
there were several hundred people from all over the country. I was 
arrested by police as soon as I got there. Out-of-town appellants were 
sent to Majialou Appellant Escort Center, whereas appellants who are 
Beijing residents were taken into custody by officers from different 
local police stations.”
Another Beijing resident Wu Tianli said, “My friend and I were sitting 
on chairs in the Military Museum and talking and a plain-clothes officer 
came to check my ID and we ended up here in the police station. They 
have records of our making appeals before so they arrested us as soon as 
they saw us.”
Ms. Wu also said that making appeals or bringing a case to the court no 
longer has any meaning in China at all.
Over 200 appellants from Shanghai were taken to Beijing South Railway 
Station Rescue Center.
Shanghai appellant Shen Peilan said, “I was arrested when I was inside 
the State Petitions and Appeals Office. The authorities have intercepted 
many appellants and grabbed people and dragged them out as soon as they 
saw people from their areas.”
Shen continued, “Shanghai resident Ding Juying was grabbed and forced 
out by officers from Shanghai’s Regional Office in Beijing. Out-of-town 
appellants were sent to the Majialou Appellant Escort Center. Fifteen to 
twenty appellants were kept in one room and they lost their freedom as 
guards watched the door. They even had to obtain permission to use the 
restroom.”
As for the CCP’s proposal for the plenary session, one Chinese blogger 
expressed his opinion, “Is it that hard to solve issues concerning 
education, medical care, social warfare, housing, unemployment, and 
unfair senior care? Not at all, for it will only cost 600 billion yuan 
(approximately US$ 87 billion) annually to solve these problems.”
He continued, “Nevertheless, our government officials squander over one 
trillion yuan (approximately US$ 146 billion) of the public's money 
annually on meals, drinks, traveling, cars, luxurious homes for personal 
use, prostitutes, and so on.”






http://en.epochtimes.com/n2/china/police-suppress-guangning-villagers-protest-construction-site-5901.html

More Than 1000 Police Suppress Guangning Villagers Protesting 
Construction Site
By Gu Qinger
Epoch Times Staff Oct 20, 2008
Share: Facebook Digg del.icio.us StumbleUpon

Police block all entrances to the village, and the construction sites; 
police entered their village to arrest people seeking their land rights. 
(The Epoch Times)
On October 13, over one thousand police officers and hundreds of 
unidentified people were sent by authorities to enforce unauthorized 
construction on village farmland in Guangning County.
The authorities of Guangning County, Zhaoqing City, Guangdong Province 
sent these forces into several villages in Jiangbu Region, Jinji 
Village, Wuhe Town. In the midst of the conflict between the two sides, 
the authorities fired tear gas to scatter villagers, and used batons to 
beat many villagers, arresting over a dozen of them.
The next day, police blocked all the entrances to these villages and to 
the construction site. The police also entered the villages and arrested 
people protesting for their land rights.
In his interview with The Epoch Times, Mr. Lu from Mabu village said, 
“In the past two days, many policemen have been guarding the village day 
and night. We want to leave the village for some business, but are 
unable to. Construction goes on at the site goes on around the clock, 
with the farmland being bulldozed. Quite a few policemen threatened to 
arrest the head of our village, accusing him of incitement. The police 
searched his house, threatened to beat him to death. That day, the head 
of our village was so terrified that he fled to the mountains to hide.”
“That day they were powerfully armed, accompanied by police dogs and 
firing tear gas at villagers who could do nothing to fight back,” 
continued Mr. Lu. “Meanwhile, the police picked targets at random, 
beating anyone, even if women or elderly women. And some unknown spray 
was being sprayed on us, making it hard for us to open our eyes. When 
the police caught someone, they would spray the liquid directly into 
their face. My mother returned home unable to see anything with her eyes.”
On October 13, over 1000 riot police, police officers, and armed police, 
along with hundreds of hoodlums, were deployed to block each entrance of 
the Wujiang Region forcibly guarantee construction on farmland in the 
following nine villages: Hebu, Chayuan, Mabu, Liang, Jiangao, and Sizhe. 
Villagers in each of these villages went to the sites to try to stop the 
construction, but were stopped by the police.

The authorities set up tents where the police could supervise 
construction day and night. (The Epoch Times)
Mr. Lu said, “That day, the police did not treat the villagers as 
humans. My dad and mom had wounds all over their bodies. The situation 
turned chaotic—riot police walked up to anyone, picking anyone and 
beating them with batons, whether male or female, young or old.”
Another Mr. Lu said that 80% of the villagers objected to the land 
expropriation.
Mr. Li from Chayuan village said in panic, “The situation here is 
getting very tough, with villagers wounded and the police searching 
houses to arrest villagers. The police had cordoned off the farmland. 
Anyone who crossed the cordon would be beaten. Over twenty villagers 
were wounded, apart from a few injured elders. Now many policemen are 
staying there to prevent any interference with the construction. The 
villagers have been scared off from the cordoned area.”
The governor of Wuhe Town started expropriating farmland and mountainous 
areas in July 2007. This land expropriation has not been authorized by 
any legal document, nor has any legal procedure been followed. 2200 
acres of land were expropriated to construct a Huanan Industry Plant for 
Energy Recycling and Plastic Recycling. Each villager was paid 
compensation ranging from ten to several thousand dollars for each acre 
of expropriated land. Villagers strongly opposed such low compensation. 
Since then, villagers have submitted over ten appeals, but with no result.
This reporter called the local government of Wehe Town to inquire about 
the land expropriation. One staff member said, “I had no idea of this.” 
The reporter asked, “Which government agent should I call to get a 
better understanding of the issue?” “No other government agency has any 
idea of this. You don’t have to make a phone call; we know nothing about 
it.”
The villagers had turned to local media and newspapers for help for 
several times. None of the media dared to interview the villagers, 
saying, “We know the issue. Many people have called to complain about 
it, but we have to wait for our supervisors’ instructions.”






http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/PEK127616.htm

Chinese protest after money doesn't grow on trees
20 Oct 2008 08:06:41 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Ian Ransom
BEIJING, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Hundreds of people in Beijing scuffled with 
police outside a government office on Monday, demanding help recovering 
money from a get-rich-quick scheme involving tree plantations to stem 
desertification.
More than 30,000 investors, mostly retirees, sunk 1.3 billion yuan ($190 
million) into a company's tree-planting scheme in the arid northern 
region of Inner Mongolia, lured by promises of huge returns within eight 
years.
Authorities seized the company's plantations and sued its directors for 
false advertising after the project was exposed as a failed pyramid 
scheme, state media reported earlier this year.
Police in Beijing detained several protesters for putting up a banner 
outside the government office, as angry investors from across the 
country complained of dead trees and lost life savings.
Protesters complained the tree plantations on land transferred for the 
scheme had been left to wither and die after the company was 
investigated and its assets seized.
"(The company) planted trees in the desert in Inner Mongolia, then sold 
them to us. It was supposed to green the desert," said a Beijing 
resident surnamed Li, who lost about 100,000 yuan in the scheme.
"The company planted about 720,000 mu (48,000 hectares), but about 40 
percent died," Li added.
The scheme, which saw some farmers transfer their land to the company to 
use for its plantations, has shone the spotlight on China's recent rural 
reforms, which will allow farmers to transfer their land-use rights.
China's rural residents own the product of their land but not the land 
itself and were barred from trading their land-use rights.
The state-owned land system, a hangover from the huge collective 
communes set up under Mao Zedong, is routinely abused by local 
governments who often seize rural plots to sell to factories or 
developers, often paying only minimal compensation to farmers.
State media have hailed the reforms as a landmark step in guaranteeing 
farmers' rights and boosting the country's agricultural output through 
larger, more efficient farms.
Protesters welcomed the reforms, but expressed doubts that they would 
protect rural residents from opportunistic officials.
"Of course, these reforms are beneficial. But there needs to be more 
public supervision otherwise people will keep getting cheated," said a 
Beijing resident who declined to leave his name



.

http://www.clntranslations.org/article/35/workers-fight-to-save-their-union-activists

China Labor News Translations
Workers fight to save their union activists
Oct 16, 04:42
The case of Ole Wolff (Yantai) Electronics Ltd
This case of unusual rank and file union activism in China can be seen 
as both good and bad news. The good news is that, in the North-Eastern 
Chinese port city of Yantai there are workers’ willing to struggle for 
two years for their right to form their own union that will stand up for 
their rights. The bad news is that this struggle has taken a heavy toll 
on union activists, at least seven of whom have been fired because of 
their union activity as part of a persistent and illegal union busting 
campaign by the company. The company in question is Ole Wolff (Yantai) 
Electronics Ltd, a Hong Kong and Danish co-owned company that produces 
cell phone speakers, receivers and other electronic productions. Ole 
Wolff Yantai is owned by Ole Wolff (Asia) in Hong Kong, and the latter 
in turn owned by Ole Wolff Electronics. Also unprecedented is that these 
activists have directly sought help from a foreign trade union, in this 
case a few Danish trade unions. Almost unbelievable is that *the story 
of this protracted struggle has been widely covered sympathetically by 
the local media, the ACFTU’s Workers’ Daily, China Central Television 
and Central People’s Radio in Shandong Province and OWYTU’s own 
excellent website.
CLNT has translated numerous accounts of the brave and persistent 
activism on the part of OWYTU leaders, to assist international trade 
unions – especially from Denmark – rally together in solidarity with 
trade union activists at Ole Wolff.

A rare case of rank and file union activism
China is notorious for its “yellow unions”, bureaucratic entities 
affiliated with the official All China Federation of Trade Unions 
(ACFTU), more interested in maintaining harmonious relations with 
management than representing the interests of workers.
However the Ole Wolff (Yantai) Trade Union (OWYTU) is different. Ole 
Wolff workers themselves applied to establish the union after 67 women 
workers were fired in 2006 for complaining to the local Labor Department 
about sudden reduction in their wages, and the company’s refusal to sign 
employment contracts. Ole Wolff Yantai refused to acknowledge the OWYTU, 
so in September 2006 workers went on strike for 13 days. The OWYTU was 
successfully established one month later, making it, in workers’ own 
words, “the first Chinese trade union to be set up through strike.” The 
OWYTU has taken a confrontational stance towards both the company and 
the local union branch. It describes itself boldly as a “red union” 
(chise gonghui) (i.e. Socialist) while dismissing the ACFTU as a “yellow 
union” (huangse gonghui). On the union’s internet blog is a feisty 
article, entitled: “Where there’s oppression, there will be resistance!” 
(Nali you yapo, nail jiu you fankang!) In China, such militant language 
is very rarely heard in trade union circles.
Even though the OWYTU was successfully established in October 2006, what 
followed was an unbelievable string of union-busting attacks from the 
company. Union activists have reported an incredible number of threats 
against them – too many to list here, and so we instead direct readers 
to the following chronology of events compiled by the OWYTU on its 
internet blog translated by Globalization Monitor in Hong Kong.
Download the translated article here:
“Chronology of the Ole Wolff (Yantai)Trade Union’s struggle”
CLNT_OleWolff_chronology.pdf
View the original Chinese version here:
《烟台澳利威工会维权大事简表》
http://globalmon.org.hk/news.php?action=detail&news_id=137&class_id=3
http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4d515b740100afgg.html
In short, Ole Wolff’s attacks on the union have included:
• Firing seven union activists – some more than once, such as Ms Liu 
Meizhen who was been fired from Ole Wolff on four separate occasions! 
Acting union chair Ms Jiang Qianqiu was fired for objecting to workers 
made to use cleaning fluid containing benzene (a known toxin).
• Refusing to sign employment contracts with workers until they revoked 
their union membership (the company has since capitulated).
• Posting a public notice threatening that each striking worker would 
have to compensate the company 15,000 RMB if they did not return to work.
Ole Wolff has ignored two court orders to re-instate six of the fired 
union activists, one from the Yantai City Labor Department in December 
2006, and another from the Yantai City People’s Intermediate Court in 
October 2007. Ole Wolff has also refused proper compensation. 
Furthermore, according to Ms Liu Meizhen, the company has never filed 
the paper work to terminate her employment, and has refused to return 
her personal documents. Without these documents she is unable to engage 
in formal employment anywhere else, and her social insurance and pension 
account are withheld by Ole Wolff. Ole Wolff has also ignored an order 
from the Yantai City Labor Department to reinstate the current union 
chair Ms Jiang Qianqiu, who was also fired by the company for her union 
activity. The company even made false claims that Jiang Qianqiu had 
signed a document renouncing her claim for compensation.
CLNT has translated a sympathetic investigative report of the union’s 
struggle covered by the Shandong Evening Press. The report is long, 
however it conveys just how incredibly persistent Ole Wolff’s attack on 
the union has been and how hard the workers fought back.
Download the translated article here:
“Women Workers Repeatedly Fired for Applying to Set Up a Union: the 
pains of a grassroots foreign-enterprise trade union defending workers’ 
rights”
CLNT_OleWolff_newspaper.pdf
View the original Chinese article here:*
《申请成立工会，女工屡被开除 —- 一个外企基层工会组织的维权之痛》
http://218.57.134.148/wbpdf/data/2008-02-19/QA0519C.pdf (上)
http://218.57.134.148/wbpdf/data/2008-02-19/qa0619k.pdf (下)
ACFTU and local government responses
The local trade union – the Fushan District Trade Union – has been 
unsympathetic to the OWYTU and apprehensive about its radical stance 
against management. In the early days the ACFTU in Beijing was 
supportive of the OWYTU, and so the local Fushan union followed suit, 
but very quickly it adopted a critical stance when union activists wrote 
a letter demanding improvement in working conditions in October 2006. 
Since 2007 the Fushan union has done nothing to support OWYTU.
The OWYTU has proved itself willing to challenge the district union. 
CLNT has translated a report from the OWYTU’s internet blog, describing 
how the OWYTU angered the Fushan District Trade Union by video recording 
a tripartite meeting with the company and Fushan District Social and 
Labour Protection Bureau, in order “to prevent their [the Fushan 
District Trade Union’s] denial of what happened once we were out of the 
room”. Both the OWYTU’s insistence of filming the meeting, and the 
confrontational tone of the written account, demonstrates how unusually 
courageous this union is.
Download the translated article here:
“Ole Wolff Trade Union’s Short Video Interlude”
CLNT_OleWolff_TUmtg.pdf
View the original Chinese version here:
澳利威工会关于录象的小插曲
The Fushan District Labor Department has been unsupportive of the OWYTU. 
When workers went on strike in support of their application to start the 
union in October 2006, the company claimed the strike was illegal. When 
contacted by the OWYTU, the national ACFTU confirmed that the strike was 
not illegal. But the Fushan District Labor Department sided with the 
company, insisting the strike was illegal. The response from Chief Shi 
of the Labor Department was: “What does the ACFTU know?” The OWYTU had 
to campaign hard to get the Department to rule in favor of unfairly 
dismissed union chair Jiang Qianqiu in October 2007, and when Ole Wolff 
ignored the ruling the Labor Department did nothing. In December 2007 
the OWYTU even tried to sue the Labor Department for administrative 
neglect, but the suit was rejected by the court claiming that the 
supporting documents were “not well written”.
International Support
In yet another rare move by the OWYTU, union advisor Zhang Jun contacted 
Denmark’s biggest union federation, the United Federation of Danish 
Workers or 3F (Fagligt Fælles Forbund) in April 2008, requesting its 
support. In our knowledge, this is the first time that Chinese 
grassroots union activists have gone to a foreign union for help. In her 
letter, Ms Jiang expressed:
“We have almost exhausted all means, including judicial, administrative, 
media, the Internet etc, to stand up for our rights but still unable to 
make the company to comply with the laws.”
By last month 3F, the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) and the 
International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) have made contacts with 
the Danish parent company of Ole Wolff expressing their concern over the 
repression of the OWYTU, and other problems with working conditions 
including lack of employment contracts and underpayment of overtime. The 
ITUC sent a copy of its letter to the Fushan Labor Department. Mr Ole 
Wolff responded to ITUC expressing confidence in the “excellent” working 
conditions at Ole Wolff Yantai. Ole Wolff also met with 3F personally, 
and expressed that these problems were out of his control.
Ole Wolff’s response to ITUC was translated into Chinese, and the OWYTU 
itself has rebutted Ole Wolff’s claims about working conditions, saying 
that the problems outlined in 3F’s letter were only remedied after 
workers went on strike in 2006.
Thanks to the committed concern of a Danish journalist, the case was 
reported on Danish national television.
In another demonstration of solidarity, in early September 
representatives of four Hong Kong NGOs and the ITUC/HKCTU/HKTUC Hong 
Kong Liaison Officer (IHLO) protested outside Ole Wolff’s office in Hong 
Kong. They prepared a protest letter addressed to company management, 
but the company refused to receive it. News of the protest reached the 
OWYTU in Yantai.
Effective use of internet blogs
Another remarkable feature of this case has been the effective publicity 
work carried out by union members and – in particular – an “advisor” 
(guwen) to the union, Mr. Zhang Jun, the husband of fired union activist 
Liu Meizhen. Zhang Jun has used an internet blog to accumulate and 
distribute an impressive collection of documents in support of the OWYTU 
struggle. http://blog.sina.com.cn/youyudzhongguoren
As the Shangdong Evening Press article (available for download above) 
points out, Mr Zhang Jun himself has played a unique role in this 
struggle. We have never before heard of an “advisor” representing a 
Chinese trade union in negotiations with management and with upper 
levels of the ACFTU. In this very complicated case, the Fushan District 
Trade Union has behaved ambivalently in relation to Zhang. The district 
union recognizes Zhang as a negotiating partner, but at the same time 
tries hard to publicly discredit him. Zhang does enjoy some support from 
the national ACFTU, and this surely influences the local Fushan union’s 
treatment of him. Given Zhang’s novel role in this saga, it is worth 
wondering whether in future this might be a way of involving actors from 
outside the ACFTU and the government in trade union negotiations.
At the time when this posting is uploaded the struggle is still continuing.
Download PDF version of this introduction
CLNT_OleWolff_intro
More English language resources from the 3F website:
Danish Factory accused of Union Busting in China
http://forsiden.3f.dk/article/20080821/INTERNATIONALT/486430696
Chinese Workers Blog Versus Danish Factory
http://forsiden.3f.dk/article/20080821/INTERNATIONALT/839981340
Campaign updates are available from the China Reports section of the 
Globalization Monitor Website
http://www.globalmon.org.hk/en/china_reports/chinareports.html






http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/10/16/asia/AS-China-Factory-Protest.php

Workers protest at closed Chinese toy factory

The Associated Press
Published: October 16, 2008


GUANGZHOU, China: Hundreds of workers have been demonstrating outside a 
large toy factory that closed in southern China amid a global slowdown 
that has begun hurting Chinese manufacturers.
Footage of the workers demonstrating Wednesday outside the factory in 
the city of Dongguan was shown Thursday night on a newscast by Hong 
Kong's ATV. The laborers are demanding unpaid wages from the factory's 
Hong Kong owner, Smart Union Group (Holdings) Ltd., which had three 
factories in Dongguan in Guangdong province.
The factory closed on Wednesday, the same day the company issued a 
notice to Hong Kong's stock market saying that it was suspending trading 
of its shares pending the release of an announcement. Calls made to the 
company's Hong Kong main office were not answered.
The Southern Metropolis Daily, one of the most popular mass-market 
dailies in Guangdong, reported on its Web site Thursday that workers 
were shocked that the factory had closed. Unidentified laborers were 
quoted as saying the plant was operating as normal on Tuesday and there 
were no apparent signs it was about to close.
About 1,000 laborers protested outside the factory's main gate, where 
the local government posted a notice saying the plant was closed because 
of "unfavorable business conditions," the paper said.
This week, the official Xinhua News Agency reported that a total of 
3,631 toy exporters — 52.7 percent of the industry's enterprises — went 
out of business in 2008. They shut down because of higher production 
costs, wage increases for workers, and the rising value of the yuan. The 
report said most of the failures involved small factories.
Xinhua also said the General Administration of Customs was blaming the 
U.S. financial turmoil for a 5.2 percent drop in exports to America in 
the first seven months of 2008.






http://www.euronews.net/en/article/17/10/2008/unpaid-staff-step-up-protest-at-china-toy-plant/

China Unpaid staff step up protest at China toy plant 17/10/08 14:26 CET

Demanding unpaid wages, hundreds of workers are intensifying their 
protest at a closed-down toy factory in China.
The country is the world’s biggest exporter of toys. But the global 
economic crisis has worsened the outlook for an industry already 
threatened by falling exports.
Riot police have been standing guard outside the plant in the 
once-booming province of Guangdong. Hong Kong-listed Smart Union Group, 
one of the area’s largest toymakers, has said that provisional 
liquidators have been appointed.
Factories in the southern province have suffered from tight curbs on 
loans, rising labour costs and China’s stronger currency, which makes 
their products more expensive.