Taiwan Church News
3406 Edition
5 – 11 June, 2017
Headline News

Amnesty International, TAHR And NGO Urge Taiwan Society To Stand Up For Lee Ming-che

Reported by Chen Yi-fan

On March 19, Mr Lee Ming-che, a Taiwan’s NGO worker after his entrance into China, was suddenly disappeared without any information. About 10 days later, Lee was announced he had been arrested by Taiwan Affairs Office of China’s State Department. And after Lee’s 76 days of being incommunicado, he was declared to have been prosecuted in the crime of “suspected subversion of state power”.

To urge Taiwan society to stand up for Lee Ming-che and access how this event would influence Taiwan’s
democracy, Amnesty International(AI), Taiwan Association for Human Rights(TAHR) and NGO workers held a
seminar, entitled as “When the Taiwanese are forced to disappear: Stand up for Lee Ming-che and understand NGO and the civic citizens’ situations in Taiwan and China”, in Cheng Da Book Store at Tainan on June 4th.

Ms Pan Pei-jen, director of TAHR Southern Office, expressed she was both emotionally touched and steadfastly inspired when she learned Mrs Lee Jin-yu, Lee Ming-che’s wife, decided to engage with China regime in terms of “rulings of law” instead of dealing through a third-party in dark bargain, black-mail and even threatening, “So, the basic question is that whether China government would comply with her own established laws?”, Ms Pan said.

Mr Lin Ji-yang, a NGO worker, pointed out the great danger of not speaking out loud for Lee Ming-che. Once the Taiwanese keep in silent on Lee’s illegal jail, it is tantamount to a green light to China government authority over Taiwan citizens: “You can do whatever you want, we just don’t care!”, Lin said, adding that the official prosecution against Lee as “suspected subversion of state power” under criminal law, rather than “People’s Republic of China Law on the Management of Foreign Non-Governmental Organizations’ Activities within Mainland China”, was a more malignant attempt to interiorlize Taiwan under one China principle!

Ms Zeng Chu-mei, moderator of this seminar and member of AI Tainan Unit, reminded the audience that, although a Freedom of Expression Day has been established in Taiwan, there is no guarantee for such precious freedom to go on forever! To stand up for Lee Ming-che, she urged everyone to write rescue postcards or sign the petition on internet located at http:\\ www.amnesty.tw/campaigns/2514.

Translated by Peter Wolfe