Critics denounce subversion trial of rights activist
YUEYANG, China — A Taiwanese pro-democracy activist pleaded guilty Monday in a Chinese court to subverting the power of the state, but his wife dismissed the trial as “a political show” and his supporters said he had been forced to confess to crimes he didn’t commit.
Lee Ming-che’s trial marked China’s first criminal prosecution of a nonprofit worker since Beijing passed a law tightening controls over foreign nongovernmental organizations.
Lee told the court in the central Chinese city of Yueyang that he had “spread articles that maliciously attacked the Communist Party of China, China’s existing system and China’s government.” He said he had also organized people and wrote articles “intended to subvert the state’s power.”
Subversion of state power is a vaguely defined charge often used by authorities to muzzle dissent and imprison critics. The court has not yet announced a punishment for Lee.
Lee’s wife, Lee Chingyu, who was in Yueyang for the trial, had warned that he might be pressured into pleading guilty. China’s wide-ranging crackdown on civil society has featured a string of televised “confessions” — believed to have been coerced — from human rights activists accused of plots to overthrow the political system.
“Today the whole world witnessed a political show with me,” Lee Ching-yu said after the trial, showing an arm tattoo proclaiming, “I’m proud of you, Lee Mingche.”
“We also witnessed how different the core values are of Taiwan and China,” she added.
Lee’s supporters blasted the legal process.
“This trial is illegal,” said Hsiao I-Min, who traveled to Yueyang with Lee’s wife and is with the Taiwanese nongovernmental organization Judicial Reform Foundation. Lee “was forced to confess a false truth.”
Dozens of pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong marched to the China Liaison Office on Monday to protest Lee’s prosecution.
Lee, 42, has conducted online lectures on Taiwan’s democratization and managed a fund for families of political prisoners in China.