Lee Ching-yu (李凈瑜), the wife of Taiwanese human rights and democracy activist Lee Ming-che (李明哲), called on the UK to pay more attention to China’s human rights abuses, during a hearing at the British parliament on Wednesday.
Lee Ming-che was in November last year sentenced to five years in prison for “subverting state power” because of comments he made and information he circulated on social media about democracy, freedom of expression and human rights in China.
An administrator at Wenshan Community College in Taipei, Lee Ming-che went missing on March 19 last year when he entered China from Macau and was held incommunicado for more than eight months.
Photo courtesy of Taiwan Association for China Human Rights
He was on Dec. 28 transferred to Chishan Prison in China’s Hunan Province.
The activist’s wife has traveled to Europe to solicit international support for her husband’s release.
During her stay in the UK, Lee Ching-yu has called on government officials and parliamentarians, in addition to attending the hearing titled “The Darkest Moment: The Crackdown on Human Rights in China 2013-2016,” which was held by the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission to highlight concerns about the deteriorating human rights situation in China.
Grace Geng (耿格), the daughter of dissident Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng (高智晟), and Wang Bingwu (王炳武), the brother of imprisoned Chinese dissident Wang Bingzhang (王炳章), who was kidnapped by the Chinese government from Vietnam in 2002 and subsequently sentenced to life in prison, were also present at the hearing.
During the hearing, Lee Ching-yu issued a plea for the British government to focus more on the human rights situation in China, an emerging world power, and its potential global impact.
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