Gusa Press (八旗文化) editor-in-chief Li Yanhe (李延賀) is being prosecuted in China for allegedly “endangering national security,” sources said yesterday, with a political analysist saying it was a clearly an effort to intimidate Taiwanese.
Li, better known by his pen name, Fucha (富察), was born in China’s Liaoning Province and obtained Taiwanese citizenship after living in Taiwan for many years.
He returned to Shanghai in March 2023 to cancel his household registration, but was arrested by police and has been detained in an unknown location ever since.
Photo: Screen grab from Facebook
Gusa Press has published books that are critical of China’s autocratic regime, including Tibet — 70 Years of Domination under the People’s Republic of China (新疆 — 被中共支配的七十年).
In December last year, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) asked the Taipei City Government about Fucha’s release during the Shanghai-Taipei City Forum. Fucha’s family, who hope to keep the case low profile, said he should not be mentioned in public again.
On Feb. 26, the Chinese Supreme People’s Procuratorate threated to crack down on crimes related to national security and publicly declared that Fucha and Taiwanese National Party cofounder Yang Chih-yuan (楊智淵) “majorly endangered national security cases.”
Fucha was accused of “inciting secession of the country” and Yang was labeled a separatist.
China’s deputy chief prosecutor Miao Shengming (苗生明) last month said the procuratorate would severely punish all crimes that threaten national security, including Yang and Fucha’s cases.
Sources yesterday told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) that Fucha had already been secretly prosecuted and a heavy sentence had been requested, although the court has not yet officially announced the verdict.
Yang was sentenced to nine years in prison and deprived of his civil rights for two years, they said.
Fucha and Yang were arrested and prosecuted for actions outside of China, they said, adding that people should be more careful when traveling to China.
The SEF yesterday said it has been assisting Fucha’s family and that it would continue to monitor the situation while providing support.
The Mainland Affairs Council previously said that Fucha’s case was being used by Chinese authorities as a “symbolic propaganda example.”
In other news, three Taiwanese members of the religious group I-Kuan Tao (一貫道), who were in their 70s and 80s, were arrested in China in October last year. They are still being detained, on suspicion of “organizing and practicing as members of a cult that undermines law enforcement.”
Two Taiwanese members of the Unification Church were also arrested in Xiamen for allegedly proselytizing earlier this year.
National Chengchi University Institute of International Relations Taiwan-China affairs researcher Soong Kuo-cheng (宋國誠) yesterday said that China’s failure to efficiently try and sentence Taiwanese “dissidents,” and leaving their cases hanging is a form of intimidation toward Taiwanese.
China wants the progress of the Fucha case to remain ambiguous, as that would psychologically intimidate Taiwanese, he added.
Additional reporting by CNA
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