Chinese authorities may soon put on trial a Taiwanese pro-democracy activist detained since March and accused of endangering national security, his wife said today.
Lee Ching-yu told reporters she received a call today from a man who described himself as her husband Lee Ming-che's lawyer, saying the activist's case was set to go on trial at a court in central Hunan province.
Calls to the court in the city of Yueyang and the lawyer, Zhang Zhongwei, rang unanswered today.
This was the first word Lee Ching-yu directly received news about her husband's case since he disappeared 172 days ago into Chinese detention, she said, adding that she planned to apply for a travel permit to go to the mainland tomorrow.
"No matter how much heartache and sadness I've been feeling, there's finally a ray of light in being able to see Lee Ming-che again since he was disappeared," she said in a statement. "I must still embrace a glimmer of hope for human nature."
Lee Ming-che, 42, cleared immigration in the semi- autonomous Chinese territory of Macau on March 19 and never showed up for a planned meeting later that day with a friend in the mainland Chinese city of Zhuhai. He had previously conducted online lectures on Taiwan's democratisation and managed a fund for families of political prisoners in China.
In April, Lee's wife was prevented from flying to Beijing to seek a meeting with her husband because China cancelled her travel permit. China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, doesn't recognise Taiwanese passports and requires islanders to use to a Beijing-issued document called a Taiwan Compatriots Pass to visit the mainland.
Cross-strait relations have been near an all-time low since the election of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, whose Democratic Progressive Party has advocated for Taiwan's formal independence. China cut off contacts with Taiwan's government in June, five months after Tsai was elected.
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