China ramps up detentions of overseas-based activists

Chinese authorities detained a Taiwanese human rights advocate earlier this month as he traveled to the mainland to visit friends and arrange his mother-in-law’s medical treatment. Lee Ming-che is under investigation for “endangering national security,” likely for discussing Taiwan’s democracy on social media.

Lee is the third activist based overseas who has been rounded up by Beijing’s security forces in the last month. As manager of Wenshan Community College in Taipei, Lee regularly visited the mainland, where he supported Chinese activists and civil society organizations. This time, he arrived in China from Macao on March 19 for a personal trip. His friends and family grew concerned when he failed to show up to a meeting with his friend later that day.

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office claimed Lee was “currently in good physical condition” but did not reveal his location. Lee is the first Taiwanese citizen detained since China’s foreign non-governmental organization (NGO) law went into effect on Jan. 1, according to Amnesty International. The law banned foreign NGOs working on human rights or other sensitive issues.

Lee’s wife, Lee Ching-yu, said her husband used the social media app WeChat to discuss public issues and Taiwan-China relations. Government censors blocked his account last year. He also sent his mainland friends banned books on topics like the Cultural Revolution and Mao Zedong, which authorities confiscated in August.

“Lee Ming-che has shared Taiwan’s democratic experiences with friends through the internet,” Lee Ching-yu said in a press conference. “He pays attention to human rights issues and spreads hope to people who need warmth. Those behaviors are not criminal in any civilized country.”

Earlier this month, in China’s southwest province of Yunnan, authorities also detained John Sanqiang Cao and charged him with “illegally crossing the border.” For the past three years, Cao helped build and staff 16 schools for minority groups in northern Burma’s Wa state. The schools served 2,000 students, according to his friend Bob Fu of China Aid. As fighting between the Burmese army and minority groups intensified, parts of the border closed, and Cao crossed the border without a passport to continue his work.

These types of illegal border crossings are common because permits are nearly impossible to obtain, according to China Aid. Border guards typically turn a blind eye. But this time, the border patrol detained Cao, who has now been held for nearly a month at the Menglian Count Detention Center. A local Christian interviewed by China Aid said that during border crossings, “the guards will not intervene unless one has some political aspirations.”

Cao, a permanent resident of the United States since 1990, kept his Chinese citizenship so he could continue entering China for his mission work, according to Fu. Cao is married to an American, has two children who are U.S. citizens, and pastored a church in Greensboro, N.C., before returning to his work in China.

In the third instance of interference with foreign-based activists, state security agents stopped Chongyi Feng, professor at the University of Technology Sydney, at the Guangzhou airport last weekend, preventing him from boarding his flight back to Australia. Feng, who had spent three weeks conducting field research on human rights in China, is openly critical of China’s growing influence on Australia’s Chinese community, especially through its Chinese-language media. Feng has not officially been detained yet and is staying at a hotel with his wife.

The Australian consulate could not provide assistance to Feng because he is not an Australian citizen and entered the country on a Chinese passport. The incident coincided with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s visit to Australia in an effort to strengthen China-Australia ties.

“State security is questioning him about who he met while in China, about human rights lawyers,” Chen Jinxue, a friend and Feng’s lawyer, told The Guardian. “They want to know more about his research into human rights lawyers and he has been barred from leaving China on suspicion of harming national security.”