The US on Wednesday denounced the deportation of a prominent human rights lawyer from Laos to his native China, calling for details on his whereabouts and assurances on the ailing man’s access to medical care.
Lu Siwei (盧思位) was one of the lawyers appointed by families of a Hong Kong group that was intercepted by authorities in 2020 while attempting to flee the territory by boat to Taiwan.
After being arrested by Laotian police while en route to Thailand in July, Lu was transported back to China last month, where he is likely to face legal repercussions, a rights group said.
Photo: AP
He is being held at a detention facility in Sichuan, his family told Amnesty International.
“The United States condemns the forced repatriation of People’s Republic of China [PRC] national and human rights lawyer Lu Siwei to the PRC from Laos, at the request of PRC authorities,” US Department of State spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement. “We call on the PRC to confirm Lu’s current location; allow for external verification by independent observers of Lu’s well-being, including access for doctors to treat Lu’s chronic health condition; and enable his access to a lawyer of his choosing.”
Lu and another human rights lawyer — Ren Quanniu (任全牛), who also sought to represent members of the “Hong Kong 12” that attempted to travel by unsanctioned means to Taiwan — had their legal licenses revoked in 2021.
Following large-scale protests in Hong Kong in 2019, Beijing has cracked down on legal professionals offering democracy advocates representation.
Chinese authorities accused Lu of “inappropriate remarks on the Internet [and] seriously damaging the lawyer industry’s image.”
Lu in 2021 told reporters that he believed the accusations were “just a cover” and that his decision to take on several sensitive cases had “marked my destiny.”
Beijing has in the past few years also stepped up a campaign targeting its critics abroad.
Last year Spain-based group Safeguard Defenders said that Beijing had set up 54 overseas “police stations” around the world, allegedly to target critics of the Chinese Communist Party and coerce people into returning to China.
Beijing has denied the claims.
“Lu’s reported reappearance in a Chinese detention center is the latest chilling example of the Chinese government’s determination to pursue its critics even beyond China’s borders,” Amnesty International said.
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages
RSS