China refuses to free 3 probing Ivanka shoes

CHINA ON Tuesday dismissed the State Department’s call for the prompt release of three labor activists detained after probing a company that makes Ivanka Trump-brand shoes.

The activists from New Yorkbased China Labor Watch were detained on suspicion of illegally using surveillance equipment, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a briefing.

“Other nations have no right to interfere in our judicial sovereignty and independence,” she said. “The police found these people illegally possessed secret cameras, secret listening devices and other illegal monitoring devices.”

The three had allegedly uncovered evidence of verbal abuse from managers, women’s rights violations, forced overtime and pay below the minimum wage at Huajian Group factories in Ganzhou and Dongguan.

Police detained Hua Haifeng (inset left) on suspicion of using a wiretapping device, China Labor Watch said. Li Zhao (inset right) and Su Heng were missing and presumed to have been detained, according to the State Department.

The State Department had earlier demanded Chinese authorities free the three men.

“We urge China to release them immediately and otherwise afford them the judicial and fair trial protections to which they are entitled,” State Department spokeswoman Alicia Edwards told the Daily News in a statement earlier Tuesday.

“Labor activists have been instrumental in helping American companies understand the conditions in their supply chains, which can be essential in fulfilling their own responsibilities, and holding Chinese manufacturers accountable under Chinese labor laws.” Hua’s lawyer Wen Yu said all three men were being held at the Ganzhou Detention Center in Jiangxi Province. Wen said he wasn’t allowed to see his client. “I went there today to apply to meet with my client, but they said Hua Haifeng had met with an accident in his cell, and I couldn’t see him,” Wen told Radio Free Asia on Monday. A state security police officer later told Wen he couldn’t see Hua until after initially the arraignment, the lawyer said. He speculated officials were “just stripping (Hua) of his right to see a lawyer.”

Wen was ultimately able to see Hua on Tuesday, telling The Associated Press the detained man was “OK” in his cell despite having to “sleep next to the toilet.” The lawyer said he had applied for bail for for Hua.

Hua’s wife, Deng Guilian, said cops in her hometown subjected her to a grueling four-hour interrogation Friday, followed by a second round of questioning a day later. “I was terrified,” she said. White House press secretary Sean Spicer said during Tuesday’s briefing that the State Department had made the U.S. position clear. He declined to comment further.

A spokesman for the Ivanka Trump brand declined to comment when reached by The News.