Freed Taiwanese activist Lee Ming-che says he did forced labour in mainland jail but was not tortured

Name: Taiwanese activist jailed for five years in China for ‘subversion’
Uploaded: 2022-05-10T07:05:42.000Z
Duration: 1 min 14 s
Description: Taiwanese activist jailed for five years in China for ‘subversion’

‘It was totally a sweatshop,’ Lee described his imprisonment after being found guilty by a Chinese court of subversion in 2017

Speaking to reporters at Taiwan’s parliament, Lee said he considered himself ‘kidnapped’ by the mainland government

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Lee Ming-che, left, a Taiwanese activist who was jailed in China for five years, takes part in a press conference with his wife Li Ching-yu at the parliament in Taipei on May 10, 2022. Lee returned home in April. Photo: AFP

Reuters

Published: 3:05pm, 10 May 2022Updated: 3:52pm, 10 May 2022

A Taiwanese activist jailed in mainland China said on Tuesday he was subjected to forced labour and endured stale food while serving a five-year sentence, but that he was not tortured.

Lee Ming-che, a community college lecturer and activist at a human rights non-governmental organisation in Taiwan, disappeared while visiting mainland China in 2017.

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Taiwanese activist jailed for five years in China for ‘subversion’

Later that year, a Chinese court found him guilty of subversion. He was released from jail and returned to Taiwan last month.

Speaking to reporters at Taiwan’s parliament, Lee said he was forced to make clothing, including shoes and gloves, during his time in jail, working 11-12 hours a day with few days off, and he was not allowed to speak to most other prisoners.

“It was totally a sweatshop,” he said.

Lee Ming-che adjusts his mask as he takes part in a press conference at the parliament in Taipei on May 10, 2022. Photo: AFP

While the food was stale, Lee said he was neither tortured nor “whipped”, but that he had considered himself to have been “kidnapped” by the mainland government.