Student activists disappear after police raid as China clamps down on labour movement
Video footage shows officers in riot gear bursting into flat and scuffling with occupants who were supporting factory workers seeking to form a union
Police in riot gear stormed a flat in southern China on Friday where about 40 student activists and others supporting factory workers seeking to form a labour union were staying, according to activists who said they received a video of the raid as it was taking place.
The video footage, which was shared with Reuters, showed police armed with shields and helmets bursting into the activists’ accommodation and scuffling with the occupants.
The footage appeared to show a flat where the students were staying in Huizhou, near the southern city of Shenzhen, that had been previously visited by Reuters. The video could not be independently verified.
It was not immediately clear what happened to the activists. Calls to police in the area and five activists who had been staying at the flat went unanswered. Labour activists in other parts of the country who are following the case and had been in touch with various activists on the scene said they were unable to contact them.
The raid is the latest step by the Chinese authorities to clamp down on a growing labour movement in the southern province of Guangdong that started brewing last month when workers at a welding machinery company, Jasic International, were fired when they tried to create a union.