Reveal the true face of "the leader of the labor movement": accepting overseas funds to incite workers to extreme rights protection
CCTV News:Yesterday (September 26th), the Panyu District People’s Court of Guangzhou held a trial in the first instance to hear the case of Zeng Feiyang, Tang Huanxing and Zhu Xiaomei gathering people to disturb social order, and sentenced them in court. Zeng Feiyang was found guilty of gathering people to disturb social order and sentenced to three years in prison and suspended for four years; Tang Huanxing was found guilty of gathering people to disturb social order and sentenced to one year and six months in prison, suspended for two years; Zhu Xiaomei was found guilty of gathering people to disturb social order and sentenced to one year and six months in prison, suspended for two years. All three defendants pleaded guilty and repented in court, obeyed the court decision and did not appeal. Once upon a time, Zeng Feiyang, the director of Panyu Migrant Workers’ Word Processing Service Department, was famous as the "Star of Labor Movement" and was also awarded the "Public Welfare Person of the Year".
Presiding judge:The Panyu District People’s Court of Guangzhou is now in session. Please ask the bailiff to bring the defendants Zeng Feiyang, Tang Huanxing and Zhu Xiaomei to court!
The trial on the 26th began at 9: 00 am, and the Panyu District Procuratorate of Guangzhou sent personnel to appear in court to support the public prosecution. The defendants Zeng Feiyang, Tang Huanxing, Zhu Xiaomei and their defenders attended the proceedings.
Zeng Feiyang, who stepped onto the dock, was full of white hair. The once famous leader of the labor movement now seems a little lonely, and his former flying spirits in front of the media cameras no longer exist.
Prosecutor: Are you the head of the service department of migrant workers in Panyu, Guangdong?
Defendant Zeng Feiyang:Yes
Prosecutor:Are the jobs of Meng Han, Tang Huanxing and Zhu Xiaomei arranged by you?
Defendant Zeng Feiyang:Yes
Prosecutor:Where do you get the funds for operating the service department?
Defendant Zeng Feiyang:It’s mainly social donations. Before that, it was mainly some overseas fund meetings.
Prosecutor:Why should overseas funds support you?
Defendant Zeng Feiyang:I don’t know their motives, and they are in the process to provide cost support.
Prosecutor:Have you received any overseas training?
Defendant Zeng Feiyang:Yes.
Why do you repeatedly participate in overseas training and accept overseas funds?
Accepting overseas funds and training, the prosecutor’s questions, though brief, led people into a puzzle? After all, Zeng Feiyang once had a well-known side. In 2001, Zeng Feiyang became the head of Panyu Migrant Workers’ Word Processing Service Department. After years of operation, this service department was built by Zeng Feiyang as the "first labor NGO in China" and was active in China for more than 10 years. As the director of the service department, Zeng Feiyang was repeatedly reported in domestic and foreign media, and was called a worker. Then why did this star of the labor movement repeatedly participate in overseas training and receive a lot of overseas funds? Where did he receive these funds and training? What’s the secret behind it?
Defendant Zeng Feiyang:I studied law. After graduation, I participated in the establishment of "Panyu Migrant Workers’ Word Processing Service Department" to provide legal help to some migrant workers. However, after I contacted some overseas organizations hostile to China, I received their training and funding, and incited workers to defend their rights in extreme ways according to their requirements, making a big deal of things, making an impact and exposing the government to the dark.
Zeng Feiyang resigned as an impostor for violating the law.
The investigation of the case-handling personnel revealed the unknown side of this "leader of the labor movement": Zeng Feiyang, whose real name was Zeng Qinghui, was born in Nanxiong, Guangdong Province in 1974 and was expelled from the school when he was studying in a secondary school in Guangzhou; After returning to my hometown, I exchanged my urban hukou for a fellow student named Zeng Feiyang to take the college entrance examination again. Since then, I have been using Zeng Feiyang’s name fraudulently. During his work in Nanxiong Municipal Bureau of Justice, he was administratively detained for 15 days for illegal acts and had to resign.
"Service Department" still runs after being deregistered.
In 2001, Zeng Feiyang became the head of Panyu Migrant Workers’ Word Processing Service Department. After Panyu Migrant Workers’ Document Processing Service Department was deregistered by the industrial and commercial department in 2007, Zeng Feiyang still organized the "Labor Rights Protection" campaign in the name of "Service Department". As the director of the "Service Department", Zeng Feiyang has been frequently seen in domestic and foreign media reports and has been well received.
Behind the "enthusiasm" is the planning of overseas organizations.
However, the evidence shows that Zeng Feiyang, who was highly praised, kept close contact with some overseas organizations and foreign embassies and consulates in China for a long time, and went abroad for training many times. After returning to China, he organized the "labor movement" in China and reported the situation abroad as a condition in exchange for overseas financial support. Since 2010, an overseas organization has provided more than 700,000 yuan to the Service Department every year. As required, Zeng Feiyang regularly submitted project progress reports and financial audit reports. The organization sometimes walks from behind the scenes to the front desk, sends personnel to enter the country to participate in the activities of the "service department" and gives specific "guidance" at the scene of workers’ suspension negotiations. Zeng Feiyang also confessed that the supervisors of overseas organizations had exerted influence by withholding project funds, "to ensure that I and ‘ Service department ’ Act in full accordance with the project requirements and their opinions. "
Defendant Zeng Feiyang:In the whole process, I got a lot of money from abroad, and I was also named the so-called "Star of Labor Movement". My selfish desires are extremely inflated. Even after the service department was banned by the relevant departments, I still didn’t think about repentance. I continued to incite workers to gather people to make trouble under the banner of the service department of migrant workers, which seriously disrupted social order and caused huge losses to enterprises. What I did under the command of overseas organizations not only seriously violated the law, but also caused a wrong orientation of safeguarding rights. In fact, it also served as a tool for those overseas organizations to confuse our country.
Take a large amount of overseas funds for yourself through various channels.
The investigators found that some overseas organizations first transferred the money to Zeng Feiyang’s company account in Hong Kong, and Zeng Feiyang then transferred the money to his domestic personal account through underground banks and other channels. Some overseas organizations, after converting their funds into RMB, brought cash back from Zeng Feiyang to Hong Kong or transferred it to their personal accounts. Zeng Feiyang took a large amount of overseas funds as his own through third-party platform payment, not only bought himself a car, but also bought two properties in the center of Guangzhou, one of which was placed in the name of his wife and brother, and then rented to the "service department" to collect more funds. According to Cai, who worked as a financial officer in the service department, Zeng Feiyang’s receipts for personal items such as toothpaste, toothbrush and shampoo, as well as some expenses that did not actually occur, were all taken back to the service department for reimbursement.
Intervene in factory labor disputes and incite work stoppage.
From December 2014 to April 2015, Zeng Feiyang and others took advantage of the labor-capital contradiction of Lide Shoes Factory in Nancun Town, Panyu District, Guangzhou, to provoke the contradiction to escalate and organize and incite workers to stop work for three times. Defendant Tang Huanxing confessed that Zeng Feiyang led the "service department" to intervene in labor disputes, which was to cater to the requirements of some overseas organizations with ulterior motives.
Prosecutor:Is there an employee representative in Lide Company?
Defendant Zeng Feiyang:Yes.
Prosecutor:Have you shown any other shutdown videos to Lide employees?
Defendant Zeng Feiyang: yes.
Prosecutor:Is it true that the indictment accuses you of organizing and planning three stoppages for profit-making employees?
Defendant Zeng Feiyang:It is true.
Presiding judge:What are the specific behaviors of the people who stopped working in the video?
Defendant Tang Huanxing:There is a "strike of sanitation workers in Guangzhou University Town".
public prosecutor:Did the people in the video March, shout slogans or pull banners?
Defendant Tang Huanxing: yes.
Prosecutor:Who decided to show these videos to employees of Lide Shoes Company?
Defendant Tang HuanxingAt that time, Zeng Feiyang said that he would play it.
public prosecutor: What is the purpose of playing these videos?
Defendant Tang Huanxing: Learn the workers’ behavior in the video.
Why did a dispute break out the third general strike?
What the public prosecutor’s court asked was the shutdown and disorderly incident caused by a labor dispute in Guangzhou in April 2015. This factory is about to move to a new factory because the lease contract expires. Some workers who don’t want to move with the factory asked the factory owner to pay social security, pay overtime and high temperature subsidies, and a small-scale strike broke out in December 2014.
public prosecutor: Li Juying’s testimony. Confirmed, Zeng Feiyang told us that these workers did not buy social security and needed compensation, and finally succeeded in defending their rights through this form. Zeng Feiyang also said that we should select representatives from our workers to fight for interests, and organizing employee unity is strength. Peng Jiayong helped our sewing group select seven workers representing the sewing machine group from more than 100 people, and also selected representatives. Later, Zeng Feiyang left the representatives to speak. Zeng Feiyang said that we should unite to safeguard rights and told us to go back and talk to the workers, persuading them to unite and unite, and asking other workers to join in.
Li Xiaozhen’s testimony reflects that Zeng Feiyang told us that the labor problem should be solved by labor and capital, and the government should not intervene. If the government intervenes, it will take too long, and it will not be solved in a year and a half, so the government should not intervene.
Although the factory owner felt that some of the workers’ demands were unreasonable, in order to resume production as soon as possible, he decided to pay social security, package and compensate the workers for other demands, and reissue 500 yuan per person per year according to the length of service. But a few days later, as soon as the announcement was posted, the workers immediately went on strike for the second time. During the strike, workers’ representatives put forward new requirements such as buying provident fund. Faced with the pressure of the sharp increase in factory orders at the end of the year, in order not to affect production, this time, the factory owner had to agree to most of their demands again when negotiating with the workers’ representatives, so the workers returned to work the next day.
At this point, this labor dispute could have ended, but why did a third general strike last for six days break out in April 2015?
Several workers’ representatives revealed the inside story. It turned out that the workers’ three strikes seemed to be spontaneous, but in fact they were all instigated and planned by Zeng Feiyang, the head of Panyu Migrant Workers Service Department, and Meng Han, Tang Huanxing, Zhu Xiaomei and others. Under their control, the workers held a congress and elected workers’ representatives to negotiate with the boss.
Worker representative LiZeng Feiyang gave us a meeting and told us to lead the workers. We should unite like this and find the boss. If not, teach us that the workers should go on strike. Workers vote and workers sign, which is what Zeng Feiyang told us to do. Every worker is required to sign and fingerprint to recognize this.
After the first two strikes, because the demands of the factories were basically met, the workers’ representatives thought that the matter was over, but Zeng Feiyang and others did not stop. Because hundreds of workers pay social security at the same time, the process is slow, so Zeng Feiyang and others made a fuss about it and used various opportunities to confuse and incite the workers.
Worker representative LiWe workers didn’t expect to make trouble again, so it was easy to get together and part. Everyone’s feelings for so many years were with the factory and the boss. But his service department is stirring up the wind again. Wait a minute, your boss will close the factory and leave. He hasn’t made it up to you yet, and that worker will be stirred up.
What makes several workers’ representatives even more angry is that because they don’t want to lead workers to make trouble anymore, Zeng Feiyang and others began to spread rumors everywhere.
Worker representative Li MoumouZeng Feiyang went inside to provoke our employees, and he said that our representatives were bought by the boss. He said how much money he took from the boss. Later, those employees stared at us and tried to hit us.
Under the deliberate instigation and planning of Zeng Feiyang and others, some workers who didn’t know the truth got together again to hold a workers’ meeting, re-elected workers’ representatives, and carried out the third strike.
public prosecutor: The Judicial Accounting Appraisal Opinion of Guangzhou Panyu Lide Footwear Co., Ltd. issued by Guangdong Yeqin Judicial Accounting Appraisal Institute confirmed that during the strike in April 2015, Lide Footwear Company reduced its output value by RMB 2,739,702.5 and its gross profit by RMB 9,330,41.2.
Domestic and foreign websites spread and escalate contradictions and discredit the government.
According to the division of labor determined by Zeng Feiyang, Meng Han is responsible for the convening of the meeting and on-site coordination and command, Tang Huanxing is responsible for propaganda and agitation, and Zhu Xiaomei is responsible for liaison and coordination. Zeng Feiyang revised and approved Tang Huanxing’s on-site pictures and texts, and then sent them to the media for dissemination on domestic and foreign websites. He himself was frequently interviewed by overseas media.
Defendant Tang Huanxing:"Looking back, who is the biggest beneficiary of the three shutdowns of Lide Shoes Factory? Yes ‘ Service department ’ And Zeng Feiyang. " The profit case is the most compensated case in recent years. It is advocated as a historic event of labor rights protection. The signboard of the "service department" is even louder. Zeng Feiyang’s position in the rights protection circle is rising, and more followers are coming one after another. But the real losers are not only the factory but also the workers. "After the workers get short-term benefits, the factory suffers great economic losses and operational difficulties, and many workers are unemployed."
According to Zeng Feiyang’s own confession, in more than 10 collective rights protection actions, such as sanitation workers’ rights protection in Guangzhou University Town and workers’ rights protection in Guangzhou Panyu Elegant Jewelry Factory, the "service department" was involved and manipulated by remote control.
Profound repentance in the trial is thought-provoking
"The right to work is the basic right of citizens protected by the Constitution, but safeguarding rights must be carried out within the scope permitted by law." During the trial, the public prosecutor pointed out that the legitimate purpose must be achieved by legal means, and it must not be achieved by relying on the "service department" organized by the defendant Zeng Feiyang, which is not legally registered, or by gathering people to make trouble.
Facing the solemn court, Zeng Feiyang bowed deeply in his final statement, expressing his confession and repentance.
Defendant Zeng Feiyang:In the process of (labor rights protection), I got a lot of money from abroad, and I was also named the so-called ‘ Star of Labor Movement ’ . "Zeng Feiyang said," my selfish desires are extremely inflated, even in ‘ Service department ’ After being banned by the relevant departments, they still don’t think about repentance and continue to fight ‘ Service department ’ The banner incited workers to gather people to make trouble, which seriously disrupted social order and caused huge losses to enterprises.
Defendant Tang Huanxing said in his confession that he was encouraged by Zeng Feiyang to join the "service department" and participated in organizing the Lide shoe factory incident under his command. During the period, he was responsible for self-media propaganda, encouraging workers not to accept the conditions of the factory, confronting enterprises, and making things big, thus breaking the law. It is too late to regret, and the lesson is profound.
Defendant Tang Huanxing:I plead guilty and repent of the charges in the indictment, completely obey the verdict and do not appeal. I used to run a website, and was invited and encouraged by Zeng Feiyang, the service department of migrant workers in Panyu, Guangdong Province, to join the service department of migrant workers. Under his command, I participated in organizing the Lide shoe factory incident. During this period, I was responsible for the media publicity, mainly to encourage workers not to accept the conditions of the factory, to confront the enterprise, and to make a big incident, thus breaking the law. Too late to regret.
Zhu Xiaomei also expressed deep regret.
Defendant Zhu Xiaomei:I used to be an ordinary female worker. I met Zeng Feiyang in the process of helping me defend my rights and participated in ‘ Service department ’ . After being arranged to receive training from some overseas organizations, I accepted their ideas and agreed with their practices, and began to participate in organizing the collective rights protection of employees of Lide Shoes Factory. Through the education and help of the case handlers, I deeply realized the seriousness of the crime, and hoped that other workers would safeguard their rights and interests in accordance with relevant laws and regulations.
Walking out of the court, many people who attended the trial said that this was a profound rule of law education class, which was shocking and thought-provoking.
Listen to the masses He Chijie:Zeng Feiyang and others recklessly instigated the suspension of work, which is likely to lead to unexpected situations such as casualties and uncontrollable conflicts. In the end, the workers will be hurt, so the protection of labor rights must be through legal channels.