The Tianshui People’s Intermediate Court in Gansu Province sentenced Yue to 10 years in prison and Guo and Wang to two-year terms on July 5, 1999. All three were charged with “subverting state power,” according to the Hong Kong-based Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China. According to the South China Morning Post, Yue, Guo, and Wang were arrested in January for publishing China Workers’ Monitor, a journal that campaigned for workers’ rights.
With help from Wang, Yue and Guo started the journal after they were unable to get compensation from the Tianshui City Transport agency following their dismissal from the company in 1995. All three men were reportedly members of the outlawed China Democracy Party and were forming an organization to protect the rights of laid-off workers.
The first issue of China Workers’ Monitor exposed corruption in the Tianshui City Transport agency. Only two issues were reportedly ever published.