Chinese campus crackdown on young Marxist activists expands in major cities
- Students summoned by university and warned to ignore weekend purge
- Most of the 22 activists still missing after being violently rounded up
At least 16 of 22 Chinese labour activists – many of them recent graduates from elite universities – who disappeared in five cities over the weekend were still missing early on Wednesday, as authorities widened their crackdown against emerging grass-roots activism led by young Marxists.
Students at Peking University (PKU) who formed a missing alumni concern group have been warned by the university over the past two days – in the presence of their parents and others who appeared to be plain-clothes police – to ignore the weekend purge.
But the group, which gave the estimate of the numbers of activists still missing, has vowed to keep fighting for their freedom.
The latest purge follows the earlier detention of about 50 activists after a labour rights protest that began in Shenzhen at the end of July.
TheSouth China Morning Post reported in October that one of the prominent young activists, 22-year-old Yue Xin, was still missing more than a month after her detention in August.
The Post also reported that Yue’s mother, who had been looking for her daughter, disappeared soon afterwards. There has also been no word on her whereabouts.