The US granted political asylum to the wife and children of jailed Chinese civil rights lawyer Guo Feixiong (郭飛雄), who the family says is suffering abuse, supporters said on Saturday.
Guo, who is serving a five-year prison sentence for “running an illegal business,” became well-known for his work on behalf of villagers who tried to remove a local boss of the Chinese Communist Party accused of corruption.
His wife, Zhang Qing (張青), their teenage daughter and eight-year-old son sneaked out of China into Thailand in February, said ChinaAid, a US-based group that supports underground Christians.
The UN High Commission for Refugees initially rejected their appeal for refugee status, but ChinaAid’s president Bob Fu went to Thailand to intervene and arrange for them to come to the US, the group said.
TO TEXAS
The family found out on Thursday that US authorities had granted them asylum, the group said. They are now living in Midland, Texas, where the children have enrolled in school.
Zhang had become a target herself with her children were barred from attending school after she issued open letters to Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) and US leaders calling for her husband’s release.
In an interview with Radio Free Asia, Zhang said that her husband had suffered abuse since his latest arrest in September 2006, including having his hands and feet tied together to a hardboard bed for 42 days.
“I have heard so many times that he has been brutally beaten and that he has sustained injuries — this on top of the torture he had endured before,” she told the US-funded radio station.
NOT ALONE
Guo is one of a number of prominent lawyers and rights activists in prison in China.
The wife and two children of leading lawyer Gao Zhisheng (高智晟) — who has defended pariah groups such as coal miners, underground Christians and the banned Falungong spiritual movement — also escaped to the US via Thailand earlier this year.
Unlike during previous visits by US leaders, China did not release any dissidents during US President Barack Obama’s visit last week.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
The number of pet cats in Taiwan surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time last year, reaching 1,742,033, a 32.8 percent increase from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday, citing a survey. By contrast, the number of pet dogs declined slightly by 1.2 percent over the same period to 1,462,528, the ministry said. Despite the shift, households with dogs still slightly outnumber those with cats by 1.2 percent. However, while the number of households with multiple dogs has remained relatively stable, households keeping more than two cats have increased, contributing to the overall rise in the feline population. The trend
RSS