Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2024, published 113rd ILC session (2025)

Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105) - China (Ratification: 2022)

The Committee welcomes the timely first report presented by the Government and the detailed information on its legal and regulatory framework relevant to the abolition of forced labour in the circumstances envisaged in the Convention.

The Committee recalls its consistent practice of requesting governments to review legal provisions which enforce the prohibition of the expression of views or opposition to the established political, social or economic system not involving incitement to violence, civil strife or racial hatred, by means of forced or compulsory labour, whether such prohibition is imposed by law or by a discretionary administrative or judicial decision. It has particularly done so in respect of legal provisions aimed at establishing legitimate restrictions to the right to freedom of expression or assembly, but which are worded in terms broad enough to lend themselves to an interpretation and application that could be incompatible with the Convention. This is the case of provisions aimed at protecting public order by prohibiting the publication and dissemination of “fake news” or information that is “likely” to prejudice national interests or disturb the constitutional order, as well as provisions prohibiting acts of subversion or engagement in agitation or propaganda with a view to “weakening” the authority of the State. In these cases, the Committee requests the Governments concerned to review the wording of the provisions to limit their scope to effective and concrete threats to public order, or the use or threatened use of violence (see the Committee’s general observation of 2023 on the Convention).

The Committee further notes that the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 2023 expressed its concern about reports that human rights defenders and lawyers working on human rights issues are systematically subjected to prosecution, reprisals and intimidation for their legitimate activities, including by being arbitrarily sentenced to long terms in prison or house arrest, tortured and subjected to enforced disappearance, and recommended that the Government refrain from persecuting and prosecuting human rights defenders and lawyers working on human rights issues for broadly defined offences (E/C.12/CHN/CO/3, paragraphs 15 and 16).

In this regard, the Committee notes the observations made by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), received on 18 September 2024, drawing attention to the recent convictions of labour activists and human rights defenders for the crime of subversion of state power in accordance with article 105(2) of the Criminal Law of China. According to the ITUC, on 14 June 2024, Mr Wang Jianbing (王建兵) was convicted by the Intermediate Court of Guangzhou Municipality and sentenced to imprisonment to three years and six months on charges of overseas anti-China networking, posting false statements on social media to slander the government and the socio-political system in China, and organizing private gatherings to discuss social topics in China. Ms Huang Xueqin (黃雪琴), a women’s rights activist, was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment. Both activists have appealed their sentences and remain in detention at Guangzhou No. 1 Detention Center, in the case of Mr Wang allegedly without access to adequate medical treatment. The Committee requests the Government to provide its comments in reply to these observations from the ITUC.

The Committee is raising further questions in a request addressed directly to the Government.

[The Government is asked to reply in full to the present comments in 2025.]