Taiwan resident disappears after landing in Macau

A Taiwanese community college manager and member of Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party has allegedly disappeared – possibly in Macau – while en route to Guangdong Province, according to Radio Free Asia (RFA) who reported the story after getting in touch with the friends and relatives of the missing person.

Lee Ming-cheh, who was traveling to mainland China to seek medical treatment for his mother-in-law, was last known to be traveling to Macau on Sunday morning. He was reported to be on-board an Evergreen Airlines flight from Taipei to Macau that was scheduled to land in the MSAR at 10:40 a.m.

However, a friend who was due to meet him at the Macau International Airport said that, even after four hours of waiting, Lee never showed up.

“He is incommunicado,” RFA was told by Cheng Shiowjiuan, who heads the Taipei Wenshan District Community College where Lee works. “We haven’t been able to contact him since he got on the plane [and] a friend who went to meet him at the airport waited for four hours, but he never showed up.”

Lee’s disappearance has prompted concerns that Macau immigration officials have detained or arrested him, possibly because of the community college manager’s links with Taiwan’s ruling party, which Beijing views as harboring separatist tendencies.

An official from Macau’s Public Security Police Force refused to comment on the issue, citing privacy concerns. “Because this case is a private case, we cannot comment on it,” he told the Times.

Another official contacted by the Times confirmed that “there is no record of him on our system” and that she only knew of the case through the media. Asked if the lack of a record means that Lee had not been detained, the official maintained, “we have no comment about that.”

Other reports suggest that Lee in fact entered mainland China. These accounts are potentially inconsistent with that of his friend waiting at the Macau International Airport.

A representative for the Taiwan government’s Mainland Affairs Council said that the Straits Exchange Foundation had been privy to immigration records showing that Lee entered the mainland just before midday on Sunday.

The Straits Exchange Foundation, a government non-profit organization that coordinates minor diplomatic relations between Taiwan and the mainland, was contacted by Lee’s wife after her husband’s disappearance. According to RFA, she was advised to file a missing persons report with mainland police authorities.

“There are no records of him having been formally detained by police, nor of him having checked into a hotel,” a spokesperson for the Mainland Affairs Council told RFA.

Meanwhile, a border official at a checkpoint between Macau and Guangdong Province, also refused to comment on the matter.

“You may think [he was detained], but we can’t tell you anything about this,” the official said, according to RFA. “If law enforcement really did take him away, then we wouldn’t be allowed to tell you anyway.” 

The person in question is a former secretary of Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party and has a history of involvement in democratic activism, human right advocacy and non-government organizations (NGOs).

These connections fuel speculation that his disappearance might be linked to the mainland’s crackdown on NGO activities, including a recent ruling that prevents such organizations from accepting funding from international benefactors.

“I think we can rule out the possibility of ordinary criminal proceedings,” said Lee’s colleague, Cheng. “We think a more political explanation is possible.”

The  alleged  disappearance   could
be only the most recent of a series of operations conducted by Beijing agents outside
mainland China.

Between October and December 2015, five staff of a Hong Kong publishing house and bookshop went missing, with some of the individuals reportedly detained in China, while others disappeared in Hong Kong and Thailand.

The apparent violation of Hong Kong’s Basic Law in the suspected abductions shocked residents of the two SARs and, to some, represented an undermining of the “One Country, Two Systems” policy.