A missing student labour activist has accused Chinese police of abusing him over several days, including by forcing him to listen to a three-hour speech by President Xi Jinping, amid a crackdown on campus activism.

In a video and written testimony published after he disappeared last week, Peking University student Qiu Zhanxuan said local police "tormented" him over a five-day period late February.

Intimidation tactics included a forced strip search and listening to Xi's marathon speech from the Communist Party's five-yearly congress in 2017 on high volume.

"They also wanted to force me to write a pledge to voluntarily give up all educational opportunities," Qiu said in his video statement, which was published by the Jasic Workers Solidarity Group, a labour rights movement in southern China.

His statements appear to have been pre-recorded and released following his disappearance.

"Dear comrades, friends, by the time you read this article, I am already behind bars and have lost my freedom," Qiu said.

Qiu, who led the school's Marxist society before being forced to step down by the college administration in December, was among five students who disappeared last week.

His whereabouts are still unknown, according to a source close to the Peking University Marxist group.

Police in Beijing did not respond to AFP's request for comment.

-'Chilling effect'-

While Xi has repeatedly extolled the teachings of Marx and the Communist Party, authorities have exercised a zero tolerance attitude towards Marxist students who support labour movements.

In August, a police raid swept up student activists at several universities, beating some of them and confiscating their phones for supporting the Jasic Workers Solidarity Group.

The labour organisation rose to prominence when student activists backed its efforts to form a workers' union at Jasic Technology, a welding machinery company in southern Guangdong province.

The crackdown comes as Chinese authorities have faced a slew of politically sensitive anniversaries.

The five disappeared ahead of a speech by Xi to mark the centennial of the May Fourth Movement, a landmark student protest against territorial concessions the country's leaders made in the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.

Next month will mark the 30th anniversary of the June 4 crackdown on Tiananmen pro-democracy protesters.

In December, Qiu was detained for attempting to commemorate the 125th anniversary of the birth of Communist China's founder Mao Zedong, whose legacy remains controversial in the country.

The disappearance of student leaders like Qiu "create a chilling effect and disillusionment" for students who support workers' movements and believe in social equality, said Doriane Lau, China researcher at Amnesty International.

"They learnt about social justice in schools, yet when they supported workers and stood with the marginalised people in society, they were severely and unlawfully punished," she told AFP.

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