China activists get suspended terms for disturbance

BEIJING

A Chinese court has sentenced three labor activists to suspended terms for “disrupting the peace”.

State news agency Xinhua reported Tuesday that Zeng Feiyang was given a four-year suspended sentence, during which he will have to serve three years if he falls afoul of the law, while Tang Huanxing and Zhu Xiaomei were both given 18-month terms with two-year reprieves.

"The defendants ignored national laws and organized mass gatherings that disturbed social order,” said a statement issued by the people's court of Panyu District in southern Guangdong province.

“Their acts, of a severe nature, resulted in an enterprise being suspended and led to grave losses," it added.

The three activists previously worked at a support center for migrant workers, which was co-founded by Zeng but shut down by the industry and commerce authority in 2007 – Zeng, however, reportedly continued to organize activities.

All three pleaded guilty -- with Zeng admitting to having received funding and training from "some overseas organizations hostile to China” -- and decided against appealing.

Lai Shengqi, a lawyer representing Zeng, who was arrested in December alongside other activists, was quoted by the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post as saying that the verdict was “lighter than we expected, as Zeng could have been sentenced to up to seven years”.

The newspaper reported that a fourth colleague of Zeng, Meng Han, remains under investigation and has refused to confess, describing such a move as “betraying his conscience” in a letter.

The Hong Kong-based China Labour Bulletin describes Zeng’s rights center as having had a “good reputation among workers”, and in one case having helped workers at a Guangzhou shoe factory win compensation worth 100 million yuan ($15 million) in a dispute over social insurance payments and relocation costs.

The Panyu court said the three activists sentenced Monday repented for their confessed crimes.