The US respects human rights and cannot abide China’s trampling of human rights advocate Lee Ming-che’s (李明哲) rights, Taiwan Association for China Human Rights chairman Yang Hsien-hung (楊憲宏) said on Saturday, referring to a private conversation he had with US National Security Council Senior Director for Asia Matt Pottinger.
Lee was detained after entering Zhuhai, China, from Macau on March 19. He used to work for the Democratic Progressive Party and is a staff member at Wenshan Community College in Taipei, as well as a volunteer at the non-governmental organization Covenant Watch.
Lee’s wife, Lee Ching-yu (李凈瑜), on Thursday asked the US for help securing the release of her husband at a US House of Representatives committee hearing.
Photo courtesy of Yang Hsien-hung
While in Washington, Lee Ching-yu also met with Pottinger and four other officials from the US National Security Council, accompanied by Yang and three lawyers.
Pottinger, a former Washington Post reporter assigned to Beijing, asked whether Taiwan’s media was being bought by China and how many “decent” media outlets were still around, Yang said.
Yang said he suggested a second meeting, during which he would be able to provide a more complete report on the issue about which he cares deeply.
Pottinger was quoted by Yang as saying that China’s conduct in the Lee Ming-che case was wrong and that US President Donald Trump was also firm that human rights should be protected.
At the Thursday hearing about abduction, detention and torture in China, Lee Ching-yu — along with the wives of three Chinese human rights lawyers who have also been detained — asked Washington to help preserve and enhance the human rights of people in Taiwan according to the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA).
US Representative Chris Smith, who chaired the hearing, said Taiwan is an important democratic ally of the US and a beacon of peace and democracy in Asia.
The US should continue its promises stated in the TRA and “six assurances,” which are the fundamental basis of Taiwan-US relations, he said.
The committee would look at the almost two-year effort by Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government to “eviscerate China’s network of human rights lawyers,” Smith said in a news release.
Additional reporting by CNA
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