Lee Ching-yu (李凈瑜) — wife of Taiwanese human rights advocate Lee Ming-che (李明哲), who is imprisoned in China on charges of subversion — yesterday said her husband might be pressured into pleading guilty when his trial opens tomorrow.
“At this moment, I want to ask my compatriots for their understanding if they see him do or say anything unbearable in court outside of his free will,” she told a news conference in Taipei. “This is just the Chinese government being adept” at forcing confessions, she said.
She said she would attempt to enter China on a landing visa today, as moves by the Chinese government have thrown her invitation to observe her husband’s trial into doubt.
Photo: EPA
The Mainland Affairs Council, which has been helping arrange plane tickets and travel documents, has advised her to attempt to enter China on a landing visa, following the failure of an application for a new “Taiwan Compatriot Permit” after she refused to renew contact with her husband’s Chinese-appointed lawyer, she said.
She said a man named Zhang Zhongwei (張忠偉) called her on Thursday to inform her of her husband’s impending trial at the Intermediate People’s Court in Yueyang, Hunan Province, instructing her to immediately apply for travel documents.
“As I do not acknowledge the validity of the Chinese court, I will not get involved in legal details other than asking the time and location of the trial, because I want to see my husband,” Lee Ching-yu said. “I am not going to participate, I am going to see my husband and tell him I stand with him.”
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Her previous Taiwan Compatriot Permit was revoked by Beijing in April, which prevented her from flying to China to search for her husband.
Judicial Reform Foundation executive secretary Hsiao I-ming (蕭逸民) said that he, former Democratic Progressive Party legislator Wang Li-ping (王麗萍), one unnamed human rights advocate and officials from the council and the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) have sent official applications to China’s Taiwan Affairs Office to accompany Lee Ching-yu to the trial, but the prospects look bleak.
“We will not attempt to attend or get close to the trial site as private individuals, because that would very likely result in a second Lee Ming-che. We will go only if we receive official permission,” Wang said, adding that she had directly contacted the Yueyang court.
The court said that while Lee Ming-che is to be given an “open” trial, Taiwanese may only observe if they receive permission from the Taiwan Affairs Office, she said.
“Under Chinese law, only close relatives — namely Lee Ming-che’s wife, mother and father — have a right to attend, and it looks like authorities will not permit anyone else, including SEF officials,” Wang said.
“While they are saying this is an open trial, that is not the truth if they are only going to let their own people observe,” Taiwan Association for Human Rights secretary-general Chiu Ee-ling (邱伊翎) said, echoing advocates’ charges that China is taking steps to ensure its full control over a show trial.
“In choosing to put on an open trial, the signal they are sending is that Lee Ming-che is going to make a public confession. The Chinese lawyer’s manipulation of his mother is just more proof that this is all a show,” Wang said.
She was referring to reports on Friday that Lee Ming-che’s mother, who is in her 70s and has never appeared publicly in connection with the case, had suddenly applied through the council to attend the trial.
Lee Ching-yu confirmed that she had sent the council a message in an attempt to prevent her mother-in-law’s attendance at the trial.
“My objective was to save a desperate situation and stop a humiliating show,” she said.
Lee Ming-che’s mother has a “different political stance” from her son and daughter-in-law and has called on her son to “apologize to his Chinese mother country” after learning of his detention, Wang said.
She also threw out his collection of books and political materials during Lee Ching-yu’s trip to the US in May, she added.
While Lee Ming-che has been charged with attempting to overthrow the Chinese government, Lee Ching-yu has maintained that he was visiting China to share Taiwan’s “experience of democratization” with Chinese friends.
The Chinese government has apparently decided to wrap up Lee Ming-che’s case prior to the Chinese Communist Party’s 19th National Congress next month, even though a final outcome remains uncertain, Wang said.
“The problem is that his mother’s paperwork has gone through, but ours has not,” Wang said. “Chinese authorities seem to be making participation dependent on whether Lee Ching-yu will play their assigned role for her.”
While the council requested that Lee Ching-yu contact her husband’s lawyer, its advice that she pursue a landing visa demonstrates that it has had some contact with Chinese authorities, despite official avowals to the contrary, Wang said, adding that Lee Ching-yu rejected its requests because her husband’s case is a “political question.”
Chiu said that she and Covenants Watch chief executive officer Huang Yi-bee (黃怡碧) are to still meet tomorrow for an initial UN Human Rights Council Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances meeting on Lee Ming-che’s case.
The sudden announcement and timing of his trial have effectively forestalled Lee Ching-yu’s participation at the meeting, she added.
Additional reporting by CNA and AP
WHEELING AND DEALING? Hou You-yi, Ko Wen-je, Eric Chu and Ma Ying-jeou are under investigation for allegedly offering bribes for the other side to drop out of the race Taipei prosecutors have started an investigation into allegations that four top politicians involved in attempts to form a “blue-white” presidential ticket have contravened election regulations. Listed as defendants are Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate and New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of the KMT and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲). The case stemmed from judicial complaints filed last month with the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office alleging that the KMT (blue) and the TPP (white) had engaged in bribery by offering money or other enticements
PEACE AND STABILITY: ‘Taiwan can be of tremendous value’ in building resilient supply chains, President Tsai Ing-wen said, as she encouraged closer ties with foreign businesses A Chinese invasion of Taiwan is unlikely for the time being due to the internal challenges and international pressure that China is facing, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the New York Times in an interview shown on Wednesday. “My thought is that perhaps this is not a time for them [China] to consider a major invasion of Taiwan,” Tsai said in a prerecorded interview for the DealBook Summit held by the newspaper on Wednesday. Beijing’s leadership is presently “overwhelmed by its internal challenges” on economic, financial and political grounds, while the international community “has made it loud and clear that war is
EXPOSED: Some Taipei wardens reported joining the trips out of peer pressure, while others said they were relieved it was made public so they could refuse, a city councilor said Nearly 30 percent of Taipei borough wardens have joined group tours to China that were partially funded by the Chinese government, leading prosecutors probing potential Chinese interference in January’s elections to question local officials, an investigation showed. Democratic Progressive Party Taipei City councilors Chien Shu-pei (簡舒培) and Chen E-jun (陳怡君) have reported cases of Taipei borough wardens inviting residents to join inexpensive privately organized group tours to China that were partially funded by the Chinese government. The six-day trips reportedly cost NT$10,000 to NT$15,000, the councilors said. An investigation by the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) showed that nearly 30 percent
COUNTER DISINFORMATION: More engagement and media literacy are needed to push back against misinformation and claims that the US is an unreliable partner, the AIT director said The US is “confident” that Taiwan does not face an imminent threat of a Chinese invasion, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Sandra Oudkirk told a US public radio show, adding that Washington remains committed to defensively arming the nation. She made the comment during an interview on All Things Considered, broadcast on Friday on US-based National Public Radio. “There is an important distinction between making plans and training troops, and getting ready to do something,” Oudkirk said, on whether she thinks Beijing plans to attack Taiwan in the near future. Chinese officials have told Washington that “their preference is for peaceful reunification,
RSS