Han Dongfang (; born 1963) is a Chinese advocate for workers' rights.

Han was born in the impoverished village of Nanweiquan in Shanxi and first came to international prominence as a railway worker in Beijing. He helped set up the Beijing Workers’ Autonomous Federation (BWAF) during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. The BWAF was the People's Republic of China's first independent trade union, established as an alternative to the Party-controlled All-China Federation of Trade Unions.

The BWAF was disbanded after the June 4 crackdown, and Han was placed at the top of the Chinese government's most-wanted list. He turned himself in to the police and was imprisoned for 22 months without trial until he contracted tuberculosis in prison and was released in April 1991. He spent a year in the U.S. undergoing medical treatment before returning to China in August 1993. On his return, he was arrested in Guangzhou and expelled to Hong Kong, where he still lives today.

In 1994, he established China Labour Bulletin, a Hong Kong-based non-governmental organization that seeks to uphold and defend the rights of workers across China.

In addition to his work at CLB, Han conducts regular interviews with workers and peasants across China on Radio Free Asia. These interviews give insight into lives of workers in China and are broadcast three times weekly on shortwave radio.

Education and work

Han graduated high school in Beijing but did not attend college or university. Despite this, he was an avid reader of everything from Greek to Chinese classics and worked as an assistant librarian at Beijing Normal University. Because of this, Han believed that workers needed to protect and represent their own interests, which most likely served as a key incentive for him to join the BWAF. After going through basic training at the Qinghe prison labor camp, he was given command of a squad consisting of 12 men. Likewise, many students felt that the movement needed to remain solely run by students to avoid giving the government grounds for accusing them of trying to start a revolution. He did not have much faith that the BWAF or the Tiananmen Protests would survive very long, but he felt that the BWAF was important since its legacy would live on through the workers who would be educated about China's constitution.

  • 1996
  • 2005 Gleitsman International Activist Award

Sources

Further reading

  • The Gate of Heavenly Peace. Directed by Richard Gordon and Carma Hinton.
  • Denise Chong. Egg on Mao: The Story of an Ordinary Man Who Defaced an Icon and Unmasked a Dictatorship. Random House Canada, 2009.
  • George Black, and Robin Munro. Black Hands of Beijing: Lives of Defiance in China's Democracy Movement. Wiley, 1993.
  • Hans-Heinrich Bass, Markus Wauschkuhn und Karl Wohlmuth: Menschenrechte, Arbeitsverhältnisse und Gewerkschaften in China – internationale Perspektiven, herausgegeben aus Anlass der Verleihung des 5. Bremer Solidaritätspreises an Han Dongfang, Berichte des Arbeitsbereichs Chinaforschung im Institut für Weltwirtschaft und Internationales Management der Universität Bremen, Nr. 6, 1996,
  • Statement by Han to the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China
  • Han Dongfang's Youtube page – videos of Han's call-in program with Radio Free Asia (Mandarin language)
  • Social Justice and Harmony in China: Trade Union Movement – talk by Han to UCLA International Institute on June 2, 2005
  • When will we have Free Unions in China? – online video of speech given in February 2007 in Montreal
  • Speech by Han on unions to SEIU United Healthcare Workers-West on March 8, 2008