{"id":85287,"date":"2018-08-10T14:03:00","date_gmt":"2018-08-10T14:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/127.0.0.1:10081\/?p=85287 "},"modified":"2018-08-10T14:03:00","modified_gmt":"2018-08-10T14:03:00","slug":"85287-revision-v1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/?p=85287","title":{"rendered":"China Orders German Student Who Filmed Work of Rights Lawyers to Leave"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">2018-08-09<\/span><\/div>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mzzg.org\/UploadCenter\/ArticlePics\/2018\/32\/201889image(2).jpg\" alt=\"\" \/>&nbsp;<\/div>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">David Missal (L), a postgraduate student of journalism at Beijing&#8217;s Tsinghua University, during a visit to the hometown of human rights lawyer Qi Qilei, in northern China&#8217;s Hebei province.<\/span><\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">RFA<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Authorities in the Chinese capital have revoked the student visa of a German national after he filmed the activities of human rights lawyers as part of an academic assignment.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">David Missal, a postgraduate student of journalism at Beijing&#8217;s prestigious Tsinghua University, was approaching the second year of a two-year scholarship run by a German academic exchange body, the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">His first-year student visa was up for renewal, so Missal put in an application to the Entry and Exit bureau of the Beijing police department, expecting it to be processed in around 10 days.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Instead, his visa was canceled, and a temporary visa issued until Aug. 12, giving him just 10 days to leave the country, according to photos posted to Missal&#8217;s Twitter account.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;About two months ago, I needed to renew my visa, and I waited a couple of months,&#8221; Missal told RFA in a recent interview. &#8220;I kept calling them, and they kept saying it wasn&#8217;t ready yet, and that they were looking into it.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Last Friday, Missal got a phone call from the bureau telling him it wouldn&#8217;t be renewed at all.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;They said I had to leave China within the next 10 days, because my activities weren&#8217;t compatible with a student visa,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I asked them what activities, and they said I should know very well.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;I&#8217;m so disappointed,&#8221; Missal said. &#8220;China has been trying to create a positive international image lately, but based on this, I really don&#8217;t think that&#8217;s achievable.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Documentary on imperiled rights lawyers<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Missal said his Tsinghua University professor had gone with him to the entry and exit bureau to protest at the move, but to no avail.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">An employee who answered the phone at the Tsinghua International Students and Scholars Center declined to comment on Missal&#8217;s case, saying everyone was currently on vacation.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">An official who answered the phone at the Beijing Entry and Exits Bureau declined to respond to questions from RFA about the case.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">On May 2, Missal was detained by police in Wuhan while shooting video footage for a short documentary about human rights lawyers in China, according to his blog.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Missal had accompanied rights lawyer Lin Qilei, who has been a prominent campaigner in the case of detained rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang and veteran democracy activist Qin Yongmin, who was jailed for 13 years on July 11 by the Wuhan Intermediate People&#8217;s Court, which convicted him of &#8220;incitement to subvert state power.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">China&#8217;s embattled legal profession continues to be targeted in the wake of a nationwide police operation that has detained, questioned and otherwise restricted the freedom of more than 300 rights lawyers, law firm staff and rights activists and their family members since July 2015.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Video footage posted to his blog shows around eight police officers stopping Missal and asking him to come with them, repeatedly telling him to stop filming and promising that &#8220;we will look after your rights and interests.&#8221; Eventually one officer makes a gesture, and the video ends.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;He pulled my shoulder,&#8221; Missal wrote after the incident. &#8220;I told him: &#8216;Don&#8217;t touch me. Otherwise, I will call my embassy.&#8217; After saying this a couple of times, he finally stopped pushing me.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Ordered to delete phone footage<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Missal was told to leave Wuhan after a long wait and requests by police for him to delete his mobile phone footage, which he refused to do.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Missal&#8217;s expulsion comes as China&#8217;s Ministry of Education ordered joint-venture colleges run by Chinese and overseas universities to set up committees of the ruling Chinese Communist Party as an integral part of their operations.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Li Xiaobing, director of the Western Pacific Institute at the University of Central Oklahoma, said the move is part of a bid to strengthen ideological control over all forms of academic activity.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;[They want to] promote a socialist direction in education, publicize Xi Jinping Thought and strengthen political education, as well as reducing the influence of the West,&#8221; Li told RFA. &#8220;But more important is the party&#8217;s leadership role in education.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;Chinese universities have long been led by party committees &#8230; which are in charge of ideology, including political reviews and project approval,&#8221; he said. &#8220;They have a great deal of power, because they are responsible for orientation and control, so they play a huge role in the management of a university.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Hu Ping, editor-in-chief of the Chinese political magazine &#8220;Beijing Spring&#8221;, agreed.<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;It is not usually necessary to give a specific brief to the [party committee],&#8221; he said. &#8220;They can just leave it there, and when the time comes, they can make it work for them in the name of party organization.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">&#8220;For example, [it can exert control over] teaching content, teacher salaries and training, as well as organizing events.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p><br \/><\/p>  <p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rfa.org\/english\/news\/china\/scholar-expulsion-08092018135847.html\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">For detail please visit here<\/span><\/a><\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <p>&nbsp;<\/p>  <div>&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&lt;div&gt;David Missal, a postgraduate student of journalism at Beijing&#39;s prestigious Tsinghua University, was approaching the second year of a two-year scholarship run by a German academic exchange body, the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst.&lt;\/div&gt;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ChinaHumanRights","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=85287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85287\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=85287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=85287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=85287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}