BEIJING: Students and alumni of several Chinese universities are sounding the alarm over the apparent detention of more than a dozen young labour activists who have been missing since the weekend.

Three recent graduates of the elite Peking Unive­rsity have been taken away by authorities, the Jasic Workers Support Group said in a statement late Tuesday. According to the group, witnesses saw one person being “kidnapped” from the Beijing campus, while others in Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Shanghai also disappeared.

They were involved in a coalition, led by young Marxist activists, that was founded this summer to show solidarity with factory workers at Jasic Techno­lo­­gy, a welding equipment manufacturer in southern China.

The young Marxists, how­ever, are an unusual target because they espo­use the same values socialism, workers’ rights and Marxist ideology which the party has advocated.

Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2018