April 11, 2017
Lee Ching-yu, the wife of Lee Ming-cheh, a rights activist from Taiwan, speaking to news media after she was stopped from boarding a flight to Beijing at Taoyuan International Airport in Taiwan on Monday.
Johnson Lai/Associated Press
TAOYUAN, Taiwan — China’s Ministry of Public Security has barred the wife of a detained Taiwan-born rights activist from flying to Beijing on Monday, adding to the drama surrounding the man’s disappearance after he entered China more than three weeks ago.
The wife, Lee Ching-yu, said at a news conference at Taoyuan International Airport, in northern Taiwan, that her mainland travel permit had been canceled by China, making her ineligible to board her Monday afternoon flight to seek answers about the whereabouts and status of her husband, Lee Ming-cheh.
Ms. Lee said she had not received an explanation for the cancellation of her permit, which is required for people from Taiwan to enter the mainland, as Beijing does not recognize passports from the Republic of China, the island’s official name. China claims self-ruled and democratic Taiwan as its territory and has threatened to annex it by force.
Mr. Lee, 42, has been unreachable since he entered Guangdong Province in southern China from the semiautonomous territory of Macau on March 19. Ten days later, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office confirmed that Mr. Lee was being investigated on suspicion of “activities harmful to national security.”
The denial of any contact with relatives or a lawyer has left Ms. Lee fearing for her husband’s well-being. One of the objectives of her trip to Beijing was to deliver medication he takes for high blood pressure.
“I’m extremely worried,” she said. “I’m extremely concerned.”
Chinese officials have yet to clarify what Mr. Lee had done to warrant his detention over national security concerns. Ms. Lee and others say they believe it is probably connected to his weekly online discussions with Chinese contacts about democracy and transitional justice or his donations of money and books from Taiwan to the relatives of detained Chinese rights lawyers.
On Thursday, Taiwan’s deputy justice minister, Chen Ming-tang, told the local news media that Beijing had not responded to multiple requests for information about Mr. Lee’s location and condition.
It appears that China may have contacted Ms. Lee through unofficial channels in an attempt to silence her. Ms. Lee said an unofficial “fixer” presented her with a photocopied letter on Friday that seemed to have been written by her husband. Claiming that he had written the letter against his will, Ms. Lee said she would not accept any letter or statement by her husband until she had seen him.
Ms. Lee said the fixer told her that if she ceased her public campaign to highlight Mr. Lee’s plight, he would then be released, but if she persisted, a Guangdong television station would broadcast a confession made by Mr. Lee. Coerced televised confessions have become common under China’s president, Xi Jinping.
“I ask you this,” Ms. Lee said at the airport while holding the photocopied letter, “If this isn’t a threat, what is?”
Also on Friday, An Fengshan, a spokesman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said that the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, based in Beijing, had delivered a letter written by Mr. Lee to his parents and Ms. Lee through “relevant groups,” according to Taiwan’s Central News Agency.
Mr. An accused certain rights organizations in Taiwan of “deliberately spreading rumors to cause trouble,” CNA reported.
Other members of the campaign to free Mr. Lee criticized how China had handled the matter.
Eeling Chiu, secretary of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, described the cancellation of Ms. Lee’s mainland travel permit as “regrettable” and inconsistent with China’s claim to be a country governed by the rule of law.
“Where’s the rule of law? Where are human rights?” asked Cheng Shiow-jiuan, the director of Taipei Wenshan Community College, where Mr. Lee is a manager. “If Lee Ming-cheh has committed any crime, we’re psychologically prepared to hear what it is.”
