2015-01-26
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Chinese activist Liu Linna, better known by her nickname Liu Shasha, in an undated photo.
Photo courtesy of Boxun.com
A prominent Chinese rights activist who escaped the country to be with her husband following a travel ban imposed on her by Chinese police has arrived in Cambodia and is hoping to apply for political asylum in a third country.
Liu Linna, better known by her nickname Liu Shasha, was discovered by Vietnamese police at her hotel after crossing the border from the southwestern Chinese region of Guangxi last November to spend time in Vietnam with her Hong Kong-based husband, who is unable to travel to China.
Liu, a veteran rights activist who has previously been jailed and beaten by the Chinese authorities in connection with her political activism, later crossed the border into Cambodia with husband Yeung Hung.
Liu, who hopes to apply for political asylum in a third country, was refused a visa at the Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh on Monday, she told RFA.
“They took my Chinese passport without opening it … and they said they couldn’t issue a visa to Chinese passport holders,” Liu said.
“I haven’t thought about what to do next, as I had planned to go to the U.N. refugee camp in Thailand,” she said. “I have been subjected to persecution back in China over many years.”
“I really don’t know what fate would await me if I went back.”
“I think that if I went back to China … I would suffer retaliation,” Liu said. “I am hoping to go the U.S. and to apply for political asylum.”
“Financially, things are pretty tight, and I’m not even sure I have enough for a plane ticket,” said Liu.
In an earlier interview at the weekend, Liu said she is now currently legally in Cambodia, but that her visa runs out on Feb. 10.
Difficulties in Cambodia
Liu’s husband Yeung Hung said the couple is also fast running out of money, and getting into problems with Cambodian bureaucracy.
“Things are very different here in Cambodia, where it’s very difficult just to go and withdraw money from a bank,” Yeung said.
“We can’t seem to get anything done, and we feel pretty lost.”
According to Yeung, the couple had been crossing borders illegally to meet since his “home travel permit” enabling Hong Kong citizens to visit mainland China was confiscated by Chinese authorities.
Hong Kong, China’s Special Administrative Region, is a former British colony and still maintains an immigration border with the mainland.
Yeung was detained by police in Guangdong’s border city of Shenzhen in December 2013, as he tried to cross from neighboring Hong Kong to meet Liu after his travel permit was revoked by Chinese police.
Guangdong authorities jailed him for eight months on charges of “illegally crossing a border.”
“I have thought of a number of places we might go,” Yeung said told RFA on Saturday. “The U.S. is only one of them.”
Yeung, who captained a converted Hong Kong fishing vessel that carried nationalist activists to the disputed Diaoyu islands, where they were detained and deported by Japan in October 2012, said the couple appears to have been permanently prevented from meeting by the authorities.
