Arbitrary Prison Transfer of Li Ming-che: China Violates International Human Rights Minimum Standards Once Again

Today marks the 586th day since Li Ming-che was subjected to enforced disappearance by China, and he has been illegally arrested and arbitrarily detained for over a year and a half. Li Ming-che's wife, Li Ching-yu, traveled to China five times in March, May, June, July, and September of this year to visit him. She found that Ming-che had lost a significant amount of weight, and to this day, he remains unable to communicate with his family or friends via telephone or letters. Regarding Ming-che's hypertension, we have yet to receive any assessment from medical professionals.

All supporting groups within the Li Ming-che Rescue Team once again urge Chinese authorities to release Li Ming-che immediately, refrain from restricting his right to external communication, and uphold his family's right to visitation. Furthermore, we call upon the Chinese prison administration to provide a clear account of Ming-che's health condition.

On October 19, when Li Ching-yu attempted to travel to China once again to visit her husband, she was informed through the Straits Exchange Foundation via the Association of Taiwanese Investment Enterprises that Li Ming-che had been transferred to another prison, thereby rendering the visit impossible. Li Ming-che was transferred without any prior warning, and the family has "not" received any written "notice" issued by the Chinese government to this day. Such inaction violates Article 20 of the Prison Law of the People's Republic of China, which stipulates that family members must be notified within five days of imprisonment.

Moreover, Chinese authorities must provide a clear explanation regarding when exactly Ming-che was transferred and why he was moved from the Ch'ishan Prison in Hunan to the Yancheng Prison in Hebei. According to online information, Yancheng Prison serves as an experimental base for China's prison reform, and the Chinese Minister of Justice has previously stated that this prison is intended to be a center for improving the quality of prisoners' education and reform. In addition, according to Articles 47 and 48 of the Prison Law of the People's Republic of China, prisoners undergoing their sentences are permitted to correspond with others and meet with relatives and guardians. The Chinese authorities' isolation of Ming-che from the outside world and his relatives is a clear violation of the law.

Pursuant to Rule 68 of the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules), "Every prisoner shall have the right to inform at once his family of his imprisonment or his transfer to another institution and of any serious illness or injury suffered by him." China's actions on this occasion once again violate this "minimum standard" of treatment.

On November 6 of this year, China is scheduled to undergo the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the United Nations, where it will face human rights improvement recommendations proposed by member states. During the previous two UPR reviews in 2009 and 2013, China received a total of 422 improvement recommendations from other member states. However, when compared against China's actual human rights performance, the extent of human rights improvement has been extremely limited. In its 2018 UPR national report, apart from using poverty alleviation achievements to cover up the persecution of ethnic minorities' cultural and linguistic identities, China also claimed that numerous laws related to civil and political rights had undergone substantial amendments over the past few years. Worryingly, however, these amendments still severely breach international human rights standards; the human rights progress claimed by China is merely maliciousness packaged in legal form, rather than genuine rule of law.

Furthermore, in this review, the report compiled by the United Nations on the current human rights situation in China has, for the first time, incorporated reports from Taiwanese civil society organizations. This includes reports co-authored by the Taiwan Association for Human Rights and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), as well as reports by the Covenants Watch, all of which were cited by the United Nations. Taiwanese civil groups will also travel to Geneva on November 6 to stage protests outside the Palace of Nations alongside civil groups from various countries and issue a joint statement.

Supporting Organizations

Li Ming-che Rescue Team
Taiwan Association for Human Rights
Covenants Watch
Taiwan Support Network for Tibet
Taiwan International Medical Alliance
Professor Chen Wen-chen Memorial Foundation
New Bloom Foundation (New Party Platform Foundation)
Taiwan Indigenous Peoples Policy Association
Association for Taiwan Democracy
Association of Taiwanese Professors
Taiwan Labor Front
Taiwan Association for Health Human Rights
Presbyterian Church in Taiwan
Congress Watch
Tsai Juei-yueh Dance Culture Foundation
Cheng Nan-jung Foundation
Judicial Reform Foundation
Prison Watch
Wenshan Community College
Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty
Yung-hsa Foundation
Association for Taiwan Transitional Justice