TAIPEI, Taiwan: A Taiwanese rights activist being held in China will soon face trial after being held incommunicado for more than 170 days, according to his wife, in a case that has deepened cross-strait tensions.
NGO worker Lee Ming-cheh went missing during a visit to the mainland in March and Chinese authorities later confirmed he was being investigated for suspected activities “endangering national security.”
Lee’s wife Lee Ching-yu said she had received a call from a man claiming to be her husband’s lawyer Wednesday telling her his trial was imminent.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office confirmed there would be a trial in Yueyang city in China’s southern Hunan province, without specifying a date, according to local media.
Beijing has repeatedly ignored Taipei’s requests for an explanation of Lee’s whereabouts and specifics of the allegations against him.
Relations between the two sides have deteriorated since President Tsai Ing-wen took office in May last year and Beijing has cut off all official communication with Taipei.
China sees self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory to be reunified and wants Tsai to acknowledge the island is part of “One China,” which she has refused to do.
Lee Ching-yu said in a statement that the man who called her asked her to go to China immediately because her husband’s trial was about to start.
She added that until she spoke to her husband she would not accept he had made any confession to Chinese authorities.
Despite the likelihood he would soon be jailed, Lee said she considered the possibility of seeing her husband “a ray of hope” and would apply for travel documents Thursday.
She attempted to fly to Beijing in April in a bid to “rescue” her husband, but Chinese authorities revoked her travel permit, preventing her from making the trip.
Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council on Wednesday urged China to give Lee the necessary travel documents and to guarantee her personal safety.
“The actions so far by the mainland have only continued to deepen the suspicion Taiwanese people have toward China,” it said in a statement.
Lee’s campaign for support for her husband has gained international attention.
She was planning to meet with the United Nations Human Rights Commission this month in Geneva.
In May she also testified at a congressional hearing in the United States on detained activists in China.
Lee Ming-cheh, who works for an NGO at a community college in Taipei, has long supported civil society organizations and activists in China, according to Amnesty International.
He had shared “Taiwan’s democratic experiences” with his Chinese friends online for many years and often mailed books to them, the Taiwan Association for Human Rights said.
Beijing deeply distrusts Tsai’s traditionally pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and is ratcheting up the pressure on her government.
Although it is a fully fledged democracy, Taiwan has never declared formal independence from the mainland and Beijing has threatened a military response if it ever did.
Detained Taiwan activist to stand trial in China
Detained Taiwan activist to stand trial in China
Bangladesh halts controversial relocation of Rohingya refugees to remote island
- Administration of ousted PM Sheikh Hasina spent about $350m on the project
- Rohingya refuse to move to island and 10,000 have fled, top refugee official says
DHAKA: When Bangladesh launched a multi-million-dollar project to relocate Rohingya refugees to a remote island, it promised a better life. Five years on, the controversial plan has stalled, as authorities find it is unsustainable and refugees flee back to overcrowded mainland camps.
The Bhasan Char island emerged naturally from river sediments some 20 years ago. It lies in the Bay of Bengal, over 60 km from Bangladesh’s mainland.
Never inhabited, the 40 sq. km area was developed to accommodate 100,000 Rohingya refugees from the cramped camps of the coastal Cox’s Bazar district.
Relocation to the island started in early December 2020, despite protests from the UN and humanitarian organizations, which warned that it was vulnerable to cyclones and flooding, and that its isolation restricted access to emergency services.
Over 1,600 people were then moved to Bhasan Char by the Bangladesh Navy, followed by another 1,800 the same month. During 25 such transfers, more than 38,000 refugees were resettled on the island by October 2024.
The relocation project was spearheaded by the government of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted last year. The new administration has since suspended it indefinitely.
“The Bangladesh government will not conduct any further relocation of the Rohingya to Bhasan Char island. The main reason is that the country’s present government considers the project not viable,” Mizanur Rahman, refugee relief and repatriation commissioner in Cox’s Bazar, told Arab News on Sunday.
The government’s decision was prompted by data from UN agencies, which showed that operations on Bhasan Char involved 30 percent higher costs compared with the mainland camps in Cox’s Bazar, Rahman said.
“On the other hand, the Rohingya are not voluntarily coming forward for relocation to the island. Many of those previously relocated have fled ... Around 29,000 are currently living on the island, while about 10,000 have returned to Cox’s Bazar on their own.”
A mostly Muslim ethnic minority, the Rohingya have lived for centuries in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state but were stripped of their citizenship in the 1980s and have faced systemic persecution ever since.
In 2017 alone, some 750,000 of them crossed to neighboring Bangladesh, fleeing a deadly crackdown by Myanmar’s military. Today, about 1.3 million of them shelter in 33 camps in the coastal Cox’s Bazar district, making it the world’s largest refugee settlement.
Bhasan Char, where the Bangladeshi government spent an estimated $350 million to construct concrete residential buildings, cyclone shelters, roads, freshwater systems, and other infrastructure, offered better living conditions than the squalid camps.
But there was no regular transport service to the island, its inhabitants were not allowed to travel freely, and livelihood opportunities were few and dependent on aid coming from the mainland.
Rahman said: “Considering all aspects, we can say that Rohingya relocation to Bhasan Char is currently halted. Following the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s regime, only one batch of Rohingya was relocated to the island.
“The relocation was conducted with government funding, but the government is no longer allowing any funds for this purpose.”
“The Bangladeshi government has spent around $350 million on it from its own funds ... It seems the project has not turned out to be successful.”
