The democratic opposition in China is well aware of the importance of free trade unions and its leading representatives have repeatedly called for recognition of workers’ rights by the government.

In July last year, two dissidents, Shen Liangqing and Zhang Lin, sent an open letter to the authorities to protest against the treatment of the workers involved in the demonstration in Mianyang. Shen and Zhang, both from Hefei (Anhui), demanded the release of those detained, medical treatment for the wounded and an official investigation. The two dissidents also called on the government to establish a social security system to protect workers’ rights.
Shen, a former prosecutor in Anhui, offered to take part in the investigation as an observer or prosecutor. Shen also sent an open letter of China’s top leaders warning that any attempt by President Jiang to revive the title of chairman held by Mao would start a slide into dictatorship. In December. Shen wrote an open letter to the NPC and its chairman Qiao Shi demanding the release of Wang Dan, a leader of the 1989 protests, Li Hai, also a democracy activist, and Liu Nianchun of the LPRWP. Zhang, who was jailed for two years after the 1989 protests, completed three years of re-education through labour in June for his advocacy of democracy.
In December, four democracy activists, Wang Xizhe (in the U.S.), Lu Siqing (in Hong Kong), Qin Yongmin (in Wuhan) and Xu Wenli (in Beijing) sent a letter to foreign news agencies stating that workers had a clear right to form new unions to fight for their interests in a period of drastic downsizing, mergers and sales of state-owned enterprises: “Workers in state-owned enterprises, especially, should immediately form their own unions to monitor their leaders and prevent leaders from engaging in bribery or stealing public properties.” Wang, who spent 15 years in prison for pro-democracy activities and fled China last year, said: “Organising a labour union is no longer an internal affair of China.” The open letter states that the signature by China of the UN Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in October (still to be ratified by the NPC) creates the legal basis for forming independent unions.
Qin Yongmin called on the labour leaders who had been active in the 1989 democracy movement, Han Dongfang and Wuhan-based dissident Xu Yuemin, who has been laid off from a state-owned steel factory, to play a more active role in fostering unionism: “The workers are very ardent about the formation of free unions. So, I ask Han Dongfang and Xu Yuemin to ask for help from all workers ready to unionise.” The following day, Anhui-based hospital worker and dissident Wang Hongxue gave his “complete support” to the appeal and urged other workers to follow suit. In a separate petition to the NPC, Wang urged legislators to pass laws to protect civil liberties, wipe out corruption and make the government more accountable to the people. (In January, the PSB ordered Qin Yongmin to leave the country on the grounds of “state security”, which he has so far refused to do.)
Seven democracy activists from Hangzhou (Zhejiang), mostly workers and intellectuals who had served prison terms for their involvement in the 1989 movement and other pro-democracy activities, sent a letter to the NPC on February 17, seeking guarantees for freedom of speech and assembly. They added that Prime Minister Li Peng, whom is finishing his second and last term in office, should not be named the congress chairman at the NPC’s annual session in March because of this support for the military attack on protesters on Tiananmen Square in 1989 and demanded that a committee be established to investigate that repression.
Wei Jingsheng, China’s leading human rights activist, was released on November 16 and immediately obliged to go into exile. In January, he was in Europe and visited Paris and London. In both capitals, the senior ministers were away or too busy to see him. In London, Wei was able to talk for half an hour with Derek Fatchett, the junior minister who works on Chinese affairs, in the absence of Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, who “had a full appointment book”. Wei told Fatchett that if Cook, during his visit to Beijing scheduled for January 19, did not urge China to permit free trade unions he would betray Labour Party principles.
Calls for democracy have not been limited to the opposition. Government officials have recently been quoted as advocating the democratisation of political and social life. In February, Zhou Wenzhang, deputy director of the Research and Development Centre of the Hainan provincial government, was quoted as saying: “Counting on one man to make all the decisions and drawing on the authority of one man is not reliable. That’s why we have to have support from democracy.” He added that society needed the checks and balances of free media; a lack of supervision by the press can lead to corruption.
Lee Huazhu, the mayor of a small town near Shijiazhuang (Hebei), was quoted in February as stating: “The economic reform is not enough. A good political system is needed to protect it. It is often said that the peasants are ignorant and are unable to understand democracy, but the true problem with democracy is the backwardness of the leadership which does not dare give up its exorbitant power.” Authority should not be exercised top-down, Lee added: “Since the leaders are supposed to be the servants of the people, they should be elected by the people.”
Even the ACFTU’s “Workers’ Daily” has voiced democratic demands. In a front-page article on December 22, the paper denounced the “growing corruption” of political leaders who were “looting the national economy”. “The corruption of the leadership has caused an unjust distribution of goods, disloyal competition, serious conflicts of interest, sabotaging the impartiality of the market, creating disorder in the economy and undermining the health of society … the masses are losing confidence in modernisation and are withdrawing from the party in power.” The article goes on to advocate a “more independent” press to “exercise the control of opinion over the government” which is “every day more closed and a source of abuse and mistakes.” In order to “struggle against absolute power” it is time to proceed to a “modernisation of politics without which economic modernisation will be ineffective”. The article concludes: “Political democracy will not eliminate corruption but it will make it possible to control and contain it.”
On February 17, the “Workers’ Daily” wrote: “For different historical reasons, democracy and law remain imperfect. This affects the daily life of the people who are unable to defend their political and economic interests and are perplexed about their rights as “masters of the country””.
Given the subordinate status of the ACFTU, it is safe to assume that such articles could not appear unless they reflected a debate and, most likely, a power struggle at a much higher level in the political leadership.