Taiwanese human rights advocate Lee Ming-che (李明哲) would soon be released from prison, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) said yesterday.
Lee, who in November 2017 was sentenced to five years in prison for “subversion of state power,” would be released “shortly” when his sentence is completed, TAO spokesman Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光) told a media briefing, adding that authorities would arrange for his return to Taiwan.
While not specifying when Lee would be released, Ma said that Lee’s health was “stable.”
Photo: CNA
Non-governmental organizations in Taiwan, including Amnesty International Taiwan, estimated that Lee would complete his jail term today, reasoning that the eight months he spent in detention before being officially sentenced should count toward his sentence.
Ma also said that Chishan Prison in Hunan Province, where Lee is being held, had suspended in-person visits by family members of prisoners since COVID-19 outbreaks in 2020.
Authorities had ensured Lee’s rights to communicate with people outside the prison according to the law, Ma said.
However, Amnesty International Taiwan — which has helped Lee’s wife, Lee Ching-yu (李凈瑜), to campaign for his release — said that his family had not received any notice from Chinese authorities about his pending release.
Last month, the group said that Lee Ming-che had for the past two years been barred from speaking to his wife on the telephone or writing to his family.
During the two-year period, Lee Ching-yu applied to visit her husband at the prison 16 times, to no avail, the group said, adding that the family members of other prisoners had visiting rights.
Lee Ming-che, a staff member of Wenshan Community College in Taipei, was arrested in March 2017 while visiting China’s Guangdong Province from Macau.
He was sentenced to five years in prison and an additional two years of disenfranchisement in November 2017 for “subversion of state power.”
TPP RALLY: The clashes occurred near the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall on Saturday at a rally to mark the anniversary of a raid on former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je People who clashed with police at a Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) rally in Taipei on Saturday would be referred to prosecutors for investigation, said the Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the National Police Agency. Taipei police had collected evidence of obstruction of public officials and coercion by “disorderly” demonstrators, as well as contraventions of the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), the ministry said in a statement on Sunday. It added that amid the “severe pushing and jostling” by some demonstrators, eight police officers were injured, including one who was sent to hospital after losing consciousness, allegedly due to heat stroke. The Taipei
NO LIVERPOOL TRIP: Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who won a gold medal in the boxing at the Paris Olympics, was embroiled in controversy about her gender at that event Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) will not attend this year’s World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England, due to a lack of response regarding her sex tests from the organizer, World Boxing. The national boxing association on Monday said that it had submitted all required tests to World Boxing, but had not received a response as of Monday, the departure day for the championships. It said the decision for Lin to skip the championships was made to protect its athletes, ensuring they would not travel to the UK without a guarantee of participation. Lin, who won a gold medal in the women’s 57kg boxing
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
The US has revoked Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) authorization to freely ship essential gear to its main Chinese chipmaking base, potentially curtailing its production capabilities at that older-generation facility. American officials recently informed TSMC of their decision to end the Taiwanese chipmaker’s so-called validated end user (VEU) status for its Nanjing site. The action mirrors steps the US took to revoke VEU designations for China facilities owned by Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc. The waivers are set to expire in about four months. “TSMC has received notification from the US Government that our VEU authorization for TSMC Nanjing
RSS