Chinese labour activist Chen Weixiang and two others who were arrested in Guangzhou at the end of 2019 were released after half a month of administrative detention and went home to their friends and family. Chen Weixiang posted on Facebook to thank the public for their solidarity.
Chen Weixiang has been working on labour rights in China and opened a public account on WeChat called “Heart Sanitation”. He is concerned with such issues as low salary and unreasonable contracts among sanitation workers. On 17 December 2019, Chen Weixiang, a volunteer surnamed Lu and a Chinese student surnamed Zhang who is pursuing postgraduate studies in Taiwan and conducting research for a thesis in Guangzhou, were arrested in their residence by a dozen uniformed and plain-clothed police officers and were unreachable afterwards. There were then rumours that the three were arrested for “picking quarrels and provoking troubles” and detained for 15 days from 18 December onwards. He was finally released and picked up by his family. The exact reasons for Chen’s arrest remain unknown.