The wife of democracy advocate Lee Ming-che (李明哲) on Thursday said she was yet to be told why her husband was transferred back to a prison in China’s Hunan Province after being moved to Hebei last month.
Lee Ching-yu (李凈瑜) said that the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Wednesday told her that her husband had been returned to Chishan Prison in Hunan, although no explanation was given.
Lee Ming-che has been detained in China since March last year and was sentenced to five years in prison after being convicted of “subversion of state power” in November last year.
He was at Chishan Prison initially, but on Oct. 19, a Taiwanese business association in Hunan said it was notified by the Chinese government that he had been transferred to Yancheng Prison in Hebei, which was founded in 2002 and is one of two prisons that are run directly by the Chinese government.
The Chinese authorities did not provide any further explanation, the association said.
MAC Deputy Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said that the council on Wednesday was informed by the Straits Exchange Foundation and the business association of Lee Ming-che’s second prison transfer.
Chiu said it had asked authorities in Beijing to explain why Lee Ming-che had been moved twice in such a short period of time, while expressing the government’s displeasure over his treatment.
He also urged Beijing to protect Lee Ming-che’s basic human rights and called on authorities there to allow family members to visit him in prison as soon as possible.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is aware that Beijing’s treatment of Hong Kong has weakened any possible sentiment for a “one country, two systems” arrangement for Taiwan, and has instructed Chinese Communist Party (CCP) politburo member Wang Huning (王滬寧) to develop new ways of defining cross-strait relations, Japanese news magazine Nikkei Asia reported on Thursday. A former professor of international politics at Fu Dan University, Wang is expected to develop a dialogue that could serve as the foundation for cross-strait unification, and Xi plans to use the framework to support a fourth term as president, Nikkei Asia quoted an anonymous source
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