Once it would have been the communist government going after activists such as Mr Huang Qingnan, 34.

But now, Mr Huang, who was stabbed repeatedly last November in Shenzhen, is less worried about the government and more about gangsters he believes are being hired by rough new capitalists to cow troublesome workers.

'The attack happened so fast,' Mr Huang said from his bed in a Shenzhen hospital.

'It lasted just a minute or so, but I lost so much blood that I blacked out.'

His injuries included a long wound below his left hip, cuts on his right thigh and a gashed muscle and tendon in his calf.

A week before the assault, another Shenzhen labour activist, Mr Li Jinxin, was badly beaten, said the state-run Southern Metropolis Daily.

The paper said at least two others had been attacked about the same time in Shenzhen, a boom town in southern Guangdong province.

Chinese companies often use thugs to attack enemies in business disputes but rarely against labour groups in big cities, said Ms Anita Chan, a research fellow at the Australian National University.

Guangdong will be in big trouble if this becomes a trend, she said. 'It will create a culture of violence, similar to what you find in Latin America.'

The atmosphere in Shenzhen started growing tense last September, Mr Huang said, when his group began telling workers about a new law that would take effect on Jan 1 and was expected to be the most significant change in the country's labour rules in more than a decade.

The law sets standards for labour contracts, hiring of temporary workers and severance pay. It also gives employees who have worked at a company for more than 10 years some protection against unjustified dismissal.

Mr Huang's group, called Dagongzhe, or 'Worker', distributed pamphlets explaining the law and held workshops in its tiny storefront office.

'Some factories noticed that Dagongzhe has been educating the workers and causing problems for them, so they sent people to smash up our office and target me,' he said.

There were two violent attacks on his office, one on Oct 11 and the other on Nov 14.

Mr Huang said that six days after the second attack, two men stabbed him from behind, inflicting six wounds.

He fought back while a bystander threw bricks at the attackers before they fled on motorcycles, he said.

'These were real professionals,' said Mr Huang.

His parents are farmers from south-eastern Fujian province. He moved to Shenzhen in 1996, drove trucks and worked in a pasta factory.

His face and body are covered with burn marks which he said were inflicted by rival workers using sulphuric acid in a 'revenge attack' in 1999.

In 2000, he joined a group that helped injured workers. It later evolved into Dagongzhe.

Mr Huang expects to recover, but he will be left with a severe limp. 'I am not afraid of anything because my work is meaningful. But from now on, I will be more careful,' he said.

ASSOCIATED PRESS