Meng Han has become the latest independent labour activist in China to be jailed for organising workers and taking industrial action. Meng was sentenced to 18 months in jail for ‘gathering crowds to disrupt public order’. Meng is the fourth Guangdong labour rights activist to be convicted in two months but he has received the harshest sentence as he refused to confess. In an unrelated, but important development, the Chinese government has jailed 49 company and government employees that were found guilty of contributing to the horrific blasts last year in Tianjin that killed 173 people.
Meng Han has become the latest independent labour activist in China to be jailed for organising workers and taking industrial action. Meng was sentenced to 18 months in jail for ‘gathering crowds to disrupt public order’. Meng is the fourth Guangdong labour rights activist to be convicted in two months but he has received the harshest sentence as he refused to confess. In an unrelated, but important development, the Chinese government has jailed 49 company and government employees that were found guilty of contributing to the horrific blasts last year in Tianjin that killed 173 people.
