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Friday, May 12, 2023 / 12:54 PM
More than 350 prominent representatives of Taiwan’s publishing industry, academia and media called on the Chinese authorities on Friday to speed up the investigation into the arrest of a Taiwan-based publisher and ensure that his rights are respected.
The publisher, Li Yanhe, is known by his pseudonym Fu Cha and has been held incommunicado in Shanghai, China, since March when he was visiting relatives.
On April 26, the Chinese authorities confirmed that Li was under investigation for “national security” reasons.
Lee, who was born in China in 1971, moved to Taiwan in 2009, after marrying a Taiwanese woman, and then established Josa Press, which specializes in issuing books critical of the Chinese Communist Party.
A letter was issued on Friday, signed by more than 350 prominent scholars, authors, publishers and media professionals, calling on Beijing to allow Lee’s family and lawyers to meet with him.
“We call on the Beijing regime to provide detailed information on Lee’s whereabouts and to ensure that he can return to his family in Taiwan immediately,” Reporters Without Borders’ East Asia bureau chief, Cedric Alviani, told a news conference.
Many saw Lee’s arrest as a warning from Beijing to Taiwan, an independent island democracy that Beijing considers part of the Chinese mainland.
