Chinese state security agents have detained two labor activists amid one of the country’s largest ever worker strikes, according to reports.
The labor activists, Zhang Zhiru and Lin Dong, were advising factory workers on collective bargaining before they were detained in the industrial southern city of Dongguan.
Zhang’s wife Xiao Hongxia told Bloomberg that she had not heard from her husband since Tuesday, when he met with security officials.
"I called my husband at noon yesterday, asking if he would be coming home to eat," she said on Wednesday. "He said he was in Dongguan and already having his meal. I haven’t heard from him since."
Both Zhang and Lin were previously forced to leave Dongguan but returned to assist workers at Yue Yuen Industrial Holdings Ltd, which makes shoes for large U.S. companies such as Adidas and Nike. As many as 30,000 workers have joined the strike to protest unpaid social insurance and other benefits.
China Labor Watch (CLW), a New York-based labor rights organization, posted a video last week that appeared to show riot police dispersing a peaceful protest by workers.
CLW program coordinator Kevin Slaten said in an email that the group had not been able to contact Zhang and Lin since their detainment.
"CLW wants the immediate release of these two activists," he said. "As is usually the case, the [Chinese] government has not released any statement on the detainment."
The activists were seized by China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS), an intelligence agency similar to the KGB in the former Soviet Union that has been accused of suppressing dissent.
Zhang and Lin worked at the Shenzhen Chunfeng Labor Dispute Service Center. The center has been forced to move twice since mid-March and is facing a third move. Zhang said he believes authorities pressured the center’s landlord to evict it.
Workers on strike since April 14 say their chief concern is receiving backpay for the unpaid social security benefits. Yue Yuen has offered to increase their wages and pay out social insurance starting May 1, a response that did not satisfy the workers.
Adidas has begun moving some equipment out of its production facility there to other suppliers, according to CLW. A company spokesperson said it does not plan to pull out of the factory completely.
China’s slowing economy could also add to worker-employer tensions in the coming years. Chinese officials recently announced that economic growth fell to 7.4 percent in the first quarter, an 18-month low.
China’s working age population will begin contracting in the next decade, partially because of the government’s one-child policy. Most of China’s 13 million annual abortions are forced, according to the pro-life women’s group All Girls Allowed.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has launched a crackdown on dissenters despite vowing to tackle government corruption, one of the protesters’ main concerns. Four anti-corruption activists in the New Citizens Movement were sentenced last Friday to at least two years in prison on charges of "gathering a crowd to disrupt public order."
Human rights activist and 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo also remains behind bars.