China investigates Taiwan-based publisher over national security crimes
Beijing, Apr 26 (EFE).- China confirmed Wednesday it has detained Taiwan-based book publisher, Li Yanhe, for investigation over suspected acts of “endangering national security.”
Li, a known critic of the Chinese government and the founder of Taiwan-based Gusa Publishing, went missing while visiting his family in Shanghai last month, according to Taiwanese official CNA agency.
Li, also known as Fu Cha, is being investigated by Chinese state security officials, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Zhu Fenglian said at a press briefing in Beijing.
Li’s “legitimate rights” will be protected, the spokesperson said, without providing further details about his health and whereabouts.
A statement issued by Gusa Publishing last week said Chinese authorities “severely restricted” communication with Li and has not allowed him to meet his lawyer and family members.
Earlier this week, Chinese prosecutors in Wenzhou approved the formal arrest of a Taiwan political activist, Yang Chih-yuan, on “secession” charges, after the city’s security agency concluded its investigation.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the Taiwan national was detained in August 2022 by a security agency in the city of Wenzhou, in the eastern province of Zhejiang, and his case, after undergoing “the relevant investigation”, has now been “transferred to a local court for trial.”
Yang, born in Taichung in 1990, is accused of being “an advocate of Taiwan independence” and of “conspiring to establish an illegal organization” with the aim of “pressing Taiwan to become a sovereign state and join the United Nations,” reported the Chinese state agency Xinhua after his arrest last year.
Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council Minister, Chiu Tai-san, described Wednesday the arrests of Li and Yang by the Chinese government as acts of “intimidation,” according to CNA.
China considers Taiwan a break-away province since the Kuomintang nationalists withdrew there in 1949 after losing the civil war against the communists, and has not ruled out the use of force for its reunification. EFE
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