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.
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