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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 China releases Taiwanese businessman
Taiwanese Morrison Lee, who was imprisoned in China and barred from leaving after his release in 2021, arrives in Tokyo on Monday. Photo from the BBC Chinese-language service
ARRIVED IN JAPAN: Taiwan’s government was tracking Lee’s whereabouts and stayed in touch with his family and ascertained that he had safely left China, sources said
By Jake Chung / Staff writer
Taiwanese national Morrison Lee （李孟居） yesterday arrived in Japan as China allowed him to leave the country two years after the conclusion of his prison sentence in 2021.
Lee had been released by China and left the country, Mainland Affairs Council spokesman Jan Jyh-horng （詹志宏） said, adding that China had not informed Taiwan of the decision and the news came to the government from Lee’s family.
Arriving in Japan wearing a mask featuring the national flag of Taiwan, Lee told the Chinese-language BBC in an exclusive interview that the moment he cleared Japanese customs, he felt “truly free.”
Lee said his acquaintances knew he rarely talks about politics as a businessperson.
“[I discovered] through this incident that this country [China] was entirely different from our perceptions,” he said.
Lee, a Hsinchu native and an unpaid adviser to Pingtung County’s Fangliao Township （枋寮）, went missing in 2019 on his way to Shenzhen via Hong Kong.
He was accused of being a Taiwanese spy for taking pictures of Chinese armed police amassing on the border between Shenzhen and Hong Kong due to the protests against the extradition bill.
The police was about 50m from his hotel, and he, being a curious visitor on a business trip, snapped some quick photos of the area with his phone, Lee said.
He was sentenced to one year and 10 months in prison, with two additional years during which he would be disenfranchised, Lee said, adding that he was only informed one month before completing his prison sentence that he would not be able to leave the country during the period of disenfranchisement.
He had post-traumatic stress disorder over the incident and many Taiwanese businesspeople were unwilling to chat with him on Chinese messaging app WeChat or the phone, preferring to talk to him in person instead, Lee said, adding that he had used these two years to travel across China in an attempt to assuage his sense of loneliness.
Human Rights Watch senior China researcher Wang Yaqiu （王亞秋） said that Beijing indicting Lee for such a crime and including political disenfranchisement was a move stressing that Lee was a Chinese citizen.
Regarding his decision to visit Japan and not return directly to Taiwan, Lee said Chinese national security officials had met with him a week before he was allowed to leave, voicing concern that Taiwanese media would use the issue to influence the upcoming presidential and legislative elections.
He was mulling the foundation of an international support platform to help those who have been “disappeared” by the Chinese government, Lee said, adding that he probably would not return to China for the next three to five years.
Taiwan’s government was closely tracking Lee’s whereabouts and has been in contact with his family, and ascertained that he had safely arrived in Japan, said a source in the government commenting on condition of anonymity to the Liberty Times （sister paper of the Taipei Times）.
Lee is to return to Taiwan in a few weeks, the source said.
Additional reporting by Chen Yu-fu and Reuters
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
