Taiwanese national Morrison Lee (李孟居) on Sunday said he was “brutally arrested” by the Chinese border police in 2019 for simply showing support for protests in Hong Kong and a strike launched by EVA Airways’ flight attendants, before being falsely accused of spying.
After being convicted of espionage, Lee was in 2019 was sentenced to one year and 10 months in prison, and two additional years during which he would be disenfranchised. He was informed one month before finishing his prison sentence that he was banned from leaving China during the period of disenfranchisement.
Having spent nearly four years in China, Lee was given permission to leave China for Japan on Thursday last week.
Photo: screen grab from Morrison Lee’s YouTube channel
“I am happy to have returned to the free world. I feel completely released from the tension, pain and helplessness that have plagued me over the past four years,” he said in a YouTube video.
Lee said he is still experiencing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and wants to stay in Japan for a while to seek treatment, so that he is in the best condition possible when he meets the Taiwanese public.
“I will let everybody know when I decide to go back to Taiwan. Please do not worry about me. I am safe here,” he said.
Lee described in the video what happened on Aug. 20, 2019, when he tried to cross the border in Shenzhen to Hong Kong to board a flight to Taipei.
At the time, the territory was at the peak of a democratic uprising triggered by the Hong Kong government’s introduction of an extradition bill, he said.
“I arrived in Hong Kong on Aug. 18 and went to Shenzhen the next day to meet my coworkers, collect product samples and have business meetings. On Aug. 20, I was subject to a very strict baggage check when I tried to pass the border in Shenzhen to go to Hong Kong. My guess is that the strict search had something to do with the protests against the extradition bill,” he said.
The Chinese border police then found small cards in his baggage that had “Go, Hong Kong!” printed on them, as well as a few pink cards that read: “Love, peace, compassion and communication,” Lee said.
The pink cards were printed to support EVA Airways’ flight attendants who were on strike, he added.
“To the border police, these cards appeared to be paraphernalia that were used to encourage protests. As such, they brutally arrested me after accusing me of engaging in criminal activities that threatened national security,” he said.
Lee said that he was later accused of being a Taiwanese spy for taking pictures of armed Chinese police gathering on the border between Shenzhen and Hong Kong.
He was subsequently convicted and imprisoned on suspicion of committing espionage and sharing state secrets.
“I was not a Taiwanese spy as China claimed. I was only a curious passerby,” he said.
Although the incident has left him with indelible pain, Lee said his suffering was like “bearing the cross” for everyone.
He said he does not want the incident to hurt anoyone’s feelings, be they Taiwanese or Chinese.
“I hope Beijing will be willing to open up to communicate with people in Taiwan and in China with love, peace and compassion,” he said.
REPORT: Taipei has expressed an interest in obtaining loitering munitions matching the AeroVironment Switchblade 300 or the Anduril Altius-600, ‘Foreign Policy’ said Taiwan is seeking US-made kamikaze drones in an apparent concession to pressure from Washington to focus on asymmetric capabilities to defeat or deter a Chinese attack, Foreign Policy said in a report on Wednesday. Taipei has expressed an interest in obtaining AeroVironment Switchblade loitering munitions or other devices with similar capabilities, it said, citing four sources familiar with the matter commenting on condition of anonymity. The Switchblade 300 is a tube-launched drone designed for attacking ground troops, while its larger sibling, the Switchblade 600, could be used to destroy tanks and entrenched troops. Ukraine has utilized both systems extensively in its fight against
Police officers yesterday morning apprehended the prime suspect of a triple homicide case, after raiding the suspect’s hideout in Taichung. They transported the suspect to New Taipei City for questioning and recorded his statement last night. The suspect, identified as a 24-year-old man surnamed Chang (張), is believed to have used his hands to strangle his wife, surnamed Chen (陳), 29, along with his three-year-old son from a previous marriage and his wife’s mother, 69. The three dead bodies were wrapped in blankets when they were discovered inside their apartment in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) on Saturday. Chang was holding a
Hungarian Member of Parliament Tompos Marton said he considers Taiwan to be a better alternative to China as a strategic partner. Marton, who is the vice president of the opposition Momentum Party, made the remarks in an interview with the Central News Agency on Sunday. He draped a Republic of China flag across his shoulders to protest Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) visit to the capital city, Budapest, on Thursday last week, and openly voiced support for Taiwan on social media. He said in the interview that he wanted to remind the world that there were alternatives to China, and that “Taiwan has
A female physician at New Taipei City’s Shuang Ho Hospital was bullied and made to work for 32 consecutive hours by a senior colleague while pregnant before later having a miscarriage, an internal investigation found, the hospital said on Monday. The perpetrator has been removed from his post, the hospital said. The attending physician in the hospital’s Medical Imaging Department, identified by the pseudonym Y, earlier on Monday told reporters that she had been bullied by a male senior colleague who arranged shifts in her department. In January, shortly after she became pregnant, Y asked the department director if she could avoid overnight