China: RSF calls for the release of Li Yanhe, the Taiwan-based publisher sentenced to three years in prison
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for the immediate release of Li Yanhe, the radio host, book publisher and Chinese national who has been detained incommunicado for two years and whose three-year sentence was confirmed by Beijing officials on 26 March. Known as “Fucha,” Li Yanhe, who spent most of his life in Taiwan and is one of the last Chinese journalists publishing books critical of the Chinese regime.
During a press conference held on 26 March a spokesperson of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office announced that Li Yanhe, a Chinese publisher based in Taiwan and host of a programme on public broadcaster Radio Taiwan International, had been sentenced on 17 February by Shanghai First Intermediate People’s Court to three years in prison and one year of “deprivation of political rights,” a punishment that includes the loss of voting rights and freedom of speech. He was also fined 50,000 CNY (6,800 USD) in personal assets, all on charges of “inciting secession.”
Better known by the pen name Fucha, Li Yanhe is the founder and editor-in-chief of Taiwanese publishing house Gūsa Press which, among other topics, specialises in books on Chinese politics, many of which have been banned by Beijing's regime. He has been detained incommunicado since March 2023. Born in China and based in Taiwan since 2009, he was reportedly on a trip to Shanghai to cancel his household registration in the country. Taiwanese media recently reported that the journalist’s family has been pressured not to speak publicly about his situation, threatening that his sentence could be extended.
“We are appalled by the sentencing of Li Yanhe, one of the last Chinese publishers who still dares to print investigative books criticising the regime. By arbitrarily detaining him for two years under the bogus charge of inciting secession and convicting him without publicly communicating any evidence, Beijing is once again flaunting its total contempt for the right to reliable information. We call on the international community to increase pressure on the regime to secure the release of Li Yanhe, along with the 123 other journalists and press freedom defenders currently detained in China.
Li Yanhe is far from the only publisher detained in China. In 2015, five Hong Kong-based publishers suddenly disappeared and their fate was only made known months later when they appeared on Chinese public TV as detainees. One of them, Swedish book publisher Gui Minhai, is still behind bars, sentenced to ten years in prison in 2020 on bogus espionage charges. Despite his daughter’s continued fight for his freedom, the Chinese authorities have given no updates on his fate or whereabouts in five years, raising questions about his well-being.
When Chinese leader Xi Jinping took power in 2012, he began a crusade against journalism. RSF documented the crackdown in its t report, “The Great Leap Backwards of Journalism in China,” which details Beijing’s efforts to control information and media within and outside its borders.
Ranked 172nd out of 180 countries and territories in the 2024 RSF World Press Freedom Index, China is the world's largest jailer of journalists and press freedom defenders.
