Taiwan activist released from China says global help worked
Lee Ming-che (left) and his wife Lee Ching-yu attend a press conference in Taipei
A Taiwanese human rights activist who served five years in jail in China said that international pressure and the tireless advocacy by his wife worked to ensure his safe return to Taiwan.
“I know that my life’s safety and security was defended by many people, thanks to everyone, I have never felt abandoned or alone,” Lee Ming-che said at a press conference yesterday in his first public appearance since being released from prison.
Lee Ming-che was arrested by Chinese authorities in 2017 and charged with subversion of state power. His arrest was China’s first criminal prosecution of a nonprofit worker since Beijing passed a law tightening controls over foreign non-governmental organizations in 2016.
Lee had given online lectures on Taiwan’s democratization and managed a fund for families of political prisoners in China that some friends had set up.
“I did what I could do, using my credit card to buy some books,” he said, which he would send to friends in China. He would also give donations to the families of political prisoners. “This is not to interfere with the country’s internal affairs. All of this was simply a way of humanitarian caring.”
Lee is the son of parents who were both born in China and had come to Taiwan with the ruling Nationalist Party. He had always thought of himself as a Chinese person growing up.
“Real revolution, as evidenced by history, must come from the land itself,” Lee said. “I know that how China democratizes and comes to value human rights, that’s the Chinese people’s responsibility and work.”
While Lee was able to come home, another prisoner, Lee Meng-chu, remains trapped in China. Lee Meng-chu has been accused of being a spy by Chinese authorities and is now serving the two years as part of his sentence which deprived him of “political rights.”
Meng-chu had been in Hong Kong in 2019, during the massive anti-government protests that rocked the city, according to the semi-official Central News Agency. He disappeared after crossing the border into Shenzhen. MDT/AP
