China labour activist freed, says will still help strikers

Protesters from labour organizations shout slogans in support of the strike by workers at a Yue Yuen Industrial Holdings Ltd shoe factory complex in Dongguan, at a shopping mall in Hong Kong April 24, 2014. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - A Chinese labour activist has been freed after being detained for more than two days by security agents who he says tried to convince him not to make contact with workers involved in China's biggest strike in years.

Zhang Zhiru's brief detention underscores nervousness among officials about the strike, which began on April 14 at a Yue Yuen Industrial Holdings Ltd shoe manufacturing complex that employs some 40,000 workers in the southern industrial city of Dongguan.