Pro-democracy leaders have urged China to free a Taiwanese activist, arrested in Beijing 15 days ago for allegedly endangering national security.
The petition was endorsed by Joshua Wong, leader of the umbrella movement in Hong Kong, which has advocated direct election of the territory's political leaders, and Chen Wei-Ting, Lin Fei-Fan and Huang Kuo-Chang, leading the Sunflower Movement that stormed the Taiwanese Parliament in 2014 to protest economic cooperation with China, Efe news reported.
The activists said the 15-day deadline for the administrative detention of suspects in China is over on Sunday and demanded Lee's release.
On Saturday, more than 20 non-governmental organisations in Taiwan warned China that the arrest of Lee Ming-cheh was damaging bilateral relations with the island, and affecting the international image of China, as well as not intimidating islanders.
Lee's wife, Lee Ching-yu (Li Jingyu), who said Friday that she would go to China to rescue her husband, without specifying when, and she would not spare any effort for his release, sent money and medicine for her husband through the Taiwan Straits Exchange Foundation on Sunday.
The Chinese government confirmed this week, nine days after Lee's disappearance, that he was arrested and was under investigation as a suspect for having put the nation's security at risk, a crime commonly attributed to activists or dissidents by the authorities.
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--IANS
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