{"id":102556,"date":"2023-07-07T15:19:16","date_gmt":"2023-07-07T19:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/?p=102556"},"modified":"2023-07-07T17:19:36","modified_gmt":"2023-07-07T21:19:36","slug":"save-the-three-children-%e6%95%91%e6%95%91%e4%b8%89%e4%b8%aa%e5%ad%a9%e5%ad%90%e7%b4%a7%e6%80%a5%e8%a1%8c%e5%8a%a8%e5%85%ac%e5%bc%80%e5%91%bc%e5%90%81%e4%b9%a6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/?p=102556","title":{"rendered":"Save the Three Children \u6551\u6551\u4e09\u4e2a\u5b69\u5b50\u7d27\u6025\u884c\u52a8\u516c\u5f00\u547c\u5401\u4e66"},"content":{"rendered":"

Date: 29 June 2023<\/p>\n

Open Letter Calling for Urgent Action for Girls, 6 and 2, Locked up in a Psychiatric Hospital for over Two Years in China<\/strong><\/p>\n

[\u4e2d\u6587\u7248\u516c\u5f00\u4fe1\u89c1\u4e0b\u65b9]<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

He Fangmei and Li Xin\u2019s three children. Image courtesy: Twitter\/<\/em>@FreeHeFangmei<\/em><\/p>\n

To all those who care about human rights:<\/strong><\/p>\n

We are writing to draw your attention to the alarming current circumstances of a Chinese family – Ms. He Fangmei, Mr. Li Xin, and their three young children. He Fangmei\u2019s case is already known to UN human rights experts. She has been illegally detained for over two years without having received a sentence; she has a severe congenital hearing impairment. Her husband, Li Xin, a former journalist, has been sentenced through a closed-door trial to five years in prison. Their three young children have been left without parental care, and their families have been refused permission to visit them. We are deeply concerned about the safety and wellbeing of these children.<\/p>\n

In March 2018, Li Xin and He Fangmei’s one-year-old daughter received Hepatitis A, MMR and DPT vaccines in Huixian, Henan Province. In May 2018, the child became paralysed throughout her whole body and was later diagnosed with quadriplegia and muscle atrophy due to the development of a neurological disease named viral myelitis, caused by a defective vaccine. He Fangmei and Li Xin took their daughter to Beijing for medical treatment and began to raise awareness of faulty vaccines. Later, He Fangmei collaborated with other parents of children who became ill or disabled after defective vaccinations and founded the \u2018Vaccine Babies Home\u2019 group, which advocated more stringent regulation of vaccine safety and establishment of legislation to regulate compensation for defective vaccine victims. Since then, Chinese authorities have subjected He Fangmei and her family to a sustained campaign of oppression; including detentions, enforced disappearances, and serious restrictions to their freedom of movement.<\/p>\n

In March 2019, Ms. He was arrested while raising donations in Beijing with other family members of defective vaccine victims. She was forcibly taken back to Henan by police for allegedly \u2018picking quarrels and provoking trouble\u2019 and detained for ten months, before she was released without charge. Upon Ms. He\u2019s release, authorities failed to compensate her for her illegal detention, and subjected her to \u2018stability maintenance\u2019; where she and her family were frequently harassed, surveilled and had their freedom of movement severely curtailed. Ultimately, she and Mr. Li Xin were unable to take their disabled daughter to Beijing to receive her required medical treatment.<\/p>\n

On October 9, 2020, Ms. He threw paint on the front signage of the Huixian local government to protest the government\u2019s obstruction of her daughter’s medical trip. She and her children were taken away by police. Shortly afterwards, her husband Li Xin was also arrested. The couple and their children were incommunicado until March 2022, when He\u2019s family received a notice about her arrest.<\/p>\n

Family members subsequently learned that Ms. He, who was five months pregnant at the time, and her then seven-year-old son and four-year-old daughter, were transferred to \u2018live under surveillance\u2019 (a form of enforced disappearance) at the Xinxiang Gongji Psychiatric Hospital in Henan Province in October 2020.<\/p>\n

During Ms. He\u2019s stay at the psychiatric hospital, her son was sent to live with a villager who had assisted Huixian police to guard his mother, and he began to attend elementary school. In February 2021, Ms. He gave birth to her youngest daughter.<\/p>\n

On March 23, 2022, shortly after her baby turned one, Ms. He was arrested on charges of \u2018bigamy\u2019 and \u2018picking quarrels and provoking trouble\u2019 and taken into custody. Her two young daughters continue to live under surveillance in the psychiatric hospital.<\/p>\n

In January 2023, the UN published a letter sent to the Chinese authorities written by human rights experts, who expressed concern about five human rights defenders who had been disappeared or arbitrarily detained, including He Fangmei.<\/p>\n

Currently, Ms. He is being held in the Xinxiang Detention Center for an unspecified period of time, and still awaits a verdict. Her family learned that the prosecutor’s office posits a jail term between five to seven years for her, while her husband, Li Xin, has already been sentenced to five years. He is currently serving his sentence in Jiaozuo Prison, Henan province.<\/p>\n

Their disabled six-year-old girl is still detained in the psychiatric hospital, deprived of education. She has been barefoot because the hospital is not equipped to provide her with the custom-made corrective shoes she requires. The two-year-old little girl was born inside the psychiatric hospital and has never experienced life outside it. She has never met her father, and was separated from her mother at 1 month old. Is this a normal childhood?<\/p>\n

In May 2023, He Fangmei wrote to her elder sister to entrust the children to her care. However, neither the Xinxiang Gongji Psychiatric Hospital nor the Huixian Public Security Bureau would allow the childrens\u2019 aunt to visit them. This violates the Civil Code of the People\u2019s Republic of China (Article 27) and the children\u2019s rights. Relatives are extremely anxious that no safeguarding is in place to protect these young children from harm.<\/p>\n

We, the undersigned, call for urgent action for this family:<\/p>\n

To the international community, especially NGOs and individuals concerned about human rights in China:<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n