Human rights groups and lawmakers yesterday demanded China immediately release imprisoned rights advocate Lee Ming-che (李明哲), as they marked the third anniversary of his detention in Guangdong Province.
Lee, a staff member at Wenshan Community College in Taipei, went missing on March 19, 2017, after entering Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, from Macau. On Nov. 28 that year, the Yueyang City Intermediate People’s Court in Hunan Province sentenced him to five years in Chishan Prison for subversion of state power by using online discussion groups to disseminate information attacking the Chinese government and for supporting the families of Chinese dissidents.
Taiwan has not forgotten Lee, members of the Rescue Lee Ming-che Team told a news conference in Taipei, which included a display about “365 Letters Written to Lee Ming-che” exhibition of letters written by Taiwanese to Lee.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Exhibition curator Wu Ting-chen (吳亭臻) urged the public to write more letters to Lee and urged the Chinese government to release Lee.
Several lectures are to be given in Taiwan over the next two weeks to raise awareness of Lee’s case and human rights, and the letters exhibition is to go on display, Wu said, adding: “The possibility of another Lee Ming-che is always there.”
Amnesty International Taiwan executive director Chiu Ee-ling (邱伊翎) said Lee has not been able to write letters or make telephone calls since his detention, in contravention of the Prison Law of the People’s Republic of China and the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.
Covenants Watch chief executive officer Huang Yi-bee (黃怡碧) said her group issued a statement with the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development, the International Federation for Human Rights, the Taiwan Association for Human Rights demanding China immediately release Lee and stop retaliating against human rights advocates through forced disappearances and arbitrary arrests.
Independent Legislator Freddy Lim (林昶佐) said Lee did not have a fair trial, but given the COVID-19 pandemic, the hygiene and human rights conditions in Chinese prisons are cause for concern.
“Our core belief is that Lee is innocent and should be released. However, given the current circumstances, it is at the very least that his situation in prison should be transparent to his family,” Lim said.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Hung Shen-han (洪申翰) said Taiwanese efforts to support Lee would not stop until he is released and China’s change in its human rights policies.
DPP Legislator Fan Yun (范雲) said “everybody is Lee Ming-che” if they supported the pro-democratic movement in Hong Kong last year or have criticized Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the Internet.
After three years, it is time for Lee’s ordeal to end, Fan added.
New Power Party Legislator Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) said Lee’s case was an obvious miscarriage of justice, and that he was concerned about Lee’s well-being, given that Chinese lawyers he worked with say conditions in Chinese prisons are “worrying.”
At a news conference at the Legislative Yuan on Wednesday, Lee’s wife, Lee Ching-yu (李凈瑜), pleaded with the Chinese government to allow her husband to call her.
Her scheduled visit to the prison last month was canceled because of the COVID-19 outbreak and she has not received any information about her husband’s condition since then, she said.
This story has been corrected since it was first published to correct Chiu Ee-ling's title. She is no longer Taiwan Association for Human Rights secretary-general, but the executive director of Amnesty International Taiwan. The Taipei Times regrets the error.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
Taiwan is doing everything it can to prevent a military conflict with China, including building up asymmetric defense capabilities and fortifying public resilience, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said in a recent interview. “Everything we are doing is to prevent a conflict from happening, whether it is 2027 or before that or beyond that,” Hsiao told American podcaster Shawn Ryan of the Shawn Ryan Show. She was referring to a timeline cited by several US military and intelligence officials, who said Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to be ready to take military action against Taiwan