For the last five years, the Taiwanese NGO activist Lee Ming-che has been serving a prison sentence in China for subverting state authority. He was finally able to return to Taiwan on Friday.
This XiamenAir flight taxiing at Taoyuan Airport is drawing more attention than most. Reporters eagerly await the arrival of one of the passengers on board – Taiwanese NGO worker Lee Ming-che.
Lee is returning to Taiwan after serving a five-year prison sentence in China, but he’ll still have to undergo quarantine before he can reunite with friends and family.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Ma Xiaoguang said on Thursday that Lee has been released after serving the entirety of his five-year sentence.
Lee used to work for Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party and a human rights NGO. Besides human rights, he also focused on issues of democracy and shared Taiwan’s democratic experience online. Lee disappeared in March 2017 after entering China from Macau. In November that year he was given a five-year prison sentence for subverting Chinese state authority.
Since then, Lee’s wife has fought alongside human rights organizations for her husband’s release. Now, Lee is finally able to return to his family in Taiwan. If everything goes smoothly, Lee will be able to hold a press conference after his quarantine period is over.
Tomasz Koper, RTI News