Li Xin (journalist)

Li Xin ( Chinese : 李 新, * 1979 in Xinxiang , Henan , People's Republic of China ) is a Chinese journalist and human rights activist. He graduated from the China Political Science and Law University and was the website editor of the Southern Metropolis Daily Chinese media group . Li is a pro-democracy fighter and rights activist.

Li disappeared on a train from Bangkok to the northeastern border town of Nong Khai , Thailand , on January 11, 2016 after leaked confidential documents exposing the Chinese Communist Party's propaganda efforts . About a month later, He Fangmei, Li's wife, said that she received a phone call from Li on February 3rd, informing her that he had voluntarily returned to China to meet with investigators. However, his wife did not believe that Li had voluntarily gone back.

background

In 2007, Li Xin set up a website called Civil Society , which campaigned for human rights in China .

In 2008, Liu Xiaobo , a Chinese human rights activist and winner of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize , and others co-authored a manifesto called Charter 08 , which called for human rights, freedom of the press and democracy in China. Li was among the 6th group of people to sign the charter.

From 2010 to 2012, Li studied international relations at Jawaharlal Nehru University in India . During this time, the Taiwan government asked him to write editorials on Chinese politics .

After returning to China in June 2012, Li was arrested and interrogated by police from the Ministry of Domestic Security for a week in a hotel. They threatened that if he did not agree to spy on other activists and dissidents , he would be charged with espionage . Li was forced to agree, but he did not reveal any essential information.

In 2013, Li became the website editor for Southern Metropolis Daily in Guangdong Province , where he met many legal activists and public intellectuals.

Disappeared in Thailand

After Li Xin was forced by the Chinese State Security Police to spy on other activists, he decided to flee to New Delhi , India, in October 2015 . Li's wife, He Fangmei, told The Guardian that the Chinese authorities said they could arrest him at any time and charge him with endangering national security for being a spy. Li was scared and could no longer stay in China and tried to get out of China.

Upon arriving in India, Li reportedly published several lists of government sources and topics that are banned from journalists in China. Li is said to have given an insight into the operation of the regime's extensive propaganda machinery.

Li tried to get political asylum from the Indian government for several months , but to no avail. His applications were denied because India does not accept asylum applications from Chinese nationals. Li also applied for a visa to enter the United States , which the US embassy in New Delhi refused.

In December 2015, Li's wife and young son were sent back to their hometown in Henan Province by Guangdong Province authorities after they were prevented from leaving the country via Hong Kong .

On January 1, 2016, Li traveled to Thailand . On January 9, another Chinese activist, Yan Bojun, who fled to Thailand in 2015, reported that he had had dinner with Li.

At 8:36 pm on January 10, Li boarded the train from Bangkok to the northeast border town of Nong Khai . He intended to come to Laos to have his Thai visa extended.

The next day, at 7:40 am, his wife reported that she had lost contact with him. You had previously communicated via an instant messaging app .

Relaunch in China

On February 2, 2016, Li Xin's wife, He Fangmei, was summoned from a police station in Henan Province. The next day, she was allowed to speak to her husband, who appeared to be in a different location, using an internal police telephone system.

Li allegedly told his wife that he returned to China to volunteer to help the police with their investigation and that she should not speak to international media. Li refused to tell where he was and asked his wife not to ask questions. It is still unclear how Li returned to China, but his wife did not believe that Li returned willingly.

On February 3, The New York Times reported on the conversation between He Fangmei and Li in China. The article quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman in Thailand as saying that there was no "data on whether he left the country" and that there was no evidence that Mr. Li Xin was abducted from Thailand.

Other Chinese activists in Thailand disappeared

Li Xin's disappearance in Thailand marks the fourth disappearance of Chinese dissidents arrested in the country since October 2015.

On October 28, 2015, two Chinese human rights activists, Dong Guangping and Jiang Yefei, were arrested in Bangkok and handed over to the Chinese authorities, even though they were recognized as refugees by the United Nations.

On October 17, 2015, Gui Minhai, a Chinese-born Swedish publisher who wrote gossip books about Chinese political leaders, disappeared from his home in the resort town of Pattaya , Thailand. The incident is widely known as the Causeway Bay Books disappearances . He appeared on the state-run China Central Television three months later and confessed his involvement in a fatal car accident in Thailand.

International response

Major news outlets like CNN , BBC , Time , The Guardian and Radio Free Asia covered the story of Li's disappearance and reappearance in Thailand.

The European Union , the United States and the United Kingdom have raised concerns about the disappearance of Li and other Chinese dissidents in China.

In a statement, Human Rights Watch said the disappearance of Li and other Chinese dissidents from Thailand was part of the Chinese government's "unprecedented new impetus" to capture people outside its borders.

China's state-owned newspaper Global Times criticized Western media coverage of Li's disappearance. In February 2016, Shan Renping, the newspaper's editor-in-chief, argued that reports from Western media were meddling in internal affairs of China and "a provocation with obvious political selectivity."

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Tom Phillips, Oliver Holmes, Activist who vanished in Thailand is being held in China, says wife , The Guardian, February 3, 2016, accessed August 25, 2017
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Pamela Boykoff, Judy Kwon and Ivan Watson, Chinese journalist Li Xin in government custody, wife says , CNN, February 3, 2016, accessed August 25, 2017
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e} 中文 网, 李 新 ： 申請 政治 庇護 是 不想 人格分裂 下去 , BBC 中文 网 (Chinese website), November 11, 2015, accessed August 25, 2017
4. ↑ Jörg-M. Rudolph, Liu Xiaobo receives the Nobel Peace Prize ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), East Asia Institute, University of Applied Sciences Ludwigshafen, (Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive), accessed on August 25, 2017
5. ↑ ^{a b c} Oliver Holmes, Chinese rights campaigner disappears in Thailand , The Guardian, January 22, 2016, accessed August 25, 2017
6. ↑ A Chinese Dissident and Journalist Has Gone Missing in Thailand , TIME, January 22, 2016, accessed August 25, 2017
7. ↑ ^{a b} Chinese Rights Activist Disappears During Journey to Seek Political Asylum , Radio Free Asia, January 21, 2016, accessed August 25, 2017
8. ^ Ned Levin, journalist Who Went Missing in Thailand Re-Emerges in China , The Wall Street Journal, February 3, 2016, accessed August 25, 2017
9. ↑ Disappeared Chinese Journalist Back in China, 'Helping Police With Inquiries' , February 3, 2016, Radio Free Asia, accessed August 25, 2017
10. ^ ^{A b} John Keenan, Daughter of missing Hong Kong bookseller told not to travel to Asia , The Guardian, September 1, 2016, accessed August 25, 2017
11. ↑ Chris Buckley, journalist Who Sought Refuge in Thailand Is Said to Return to China , The New York Times, February 3, 2016, accessed August 25, 2017
12. ↑ China / Hong Kong: Free 'Disappeared' Booksellers , Human Rights Watch, February 10, 2016, accessed August 25, 2017
13. ↑ 冷 春 洋, 单 仁 平 ： 西 媒 又 找到 中国 "悲情 故事" 新 主角 _ 评论 _ 环球 网 , opinion.huanqiu.com, February 5, 2016, accessed August 25, 2017