Connect with us

Regional News

Chinese Human Rights Activist Disappears from Bangkok Train Station

Avatar of CTN News

Published

on

Li Xin was last heard from before boarding a train en route to Laos

Li Xin selfie before boarding a train en route to Laos at Bangkok Train Station

.

.

BANGKOK – ChineseHuman rights activist and former columnist, Li Xin, who fled China and leaked confidential documents detailing Communist party propaganda efforts has vanished in Thailand, according to his wife.

Li Xin was last heard from before boarding a train en route to Laos. His disappearance follows other cases where critics of Beijing have gone missing or been deported by Thailand’s China-allied junta.

Li, a former writer for the Southern Metropolis Daily newspaper, had been trying unsuccessfully for months to claim political asylum in a western country, his wife, Shi Sanmei, told the Guardian.


Li Xin had been trying unsuccessfully for months to claim political asylum in a western country. Photograph: Qiao Long

Li Xin had been trying unsuccessfully for months to claim political asylum in a western country – Photograph: Qiao Long


 

She said Li had fled to New Delhi last October after Chinese state security tried to blackmail him into spying on other activists, threatening him with spying charges if he did not comply.

“He was recruited to be a source before. But he left to seek political asylum,” Shi said by phone from China. “I think he was brought back by the Communist party.”

Once in India, Li leaked documents from his work at the newspaper, including a government-written list of topics that were off-limits to journalists. India would not accept his application and he was also rejected by the US embassy after applying for a tourist visa, Radio Free Asia reported.

Li travelled this year to Thailand, a long-time hub for Chinese fugitives trying to make it to the west, where he boarded a train to the north-eastern border to enter Laos. His wife has since been unable to reach him.

“He got on a train from Bangkok to Nong Khai at 8.36pm on 10 January. We had been in touch those days. The next day, around 7.40am, we lost contact,” Shi said.

Li Xin has been missing for 10 days after leaving Thailand for Laos with the hope of returning to Thailand to apply for political asylum, said his wife, Shi Sanmei.

Chinese authorities said they can arrest him at any time and charge him for endangering state security and for being a spy. He is scared. He couldn’t stay in China any more his wife said.

In October, a Hong Kong publisher, Gui Minhai, who wrote gossip books on China’s rulers, went missing in Thailand and reappeared last week tearfully “confessing” on Chinese state television to a hit-and-run crime.

Several officials from Thailand’s office of the prime minister have recently visited the Pattaya apartment owned by Gui to gather information on the days before he vanished, a source with knowledge of the visit said on condition of anonymity.

While it was not clear what the officials did exactly, the move marks the first visit to the apartment from police or authorities, despite requests from Sweden, where he holds citizenship. Friends and family of Gui believe Chinese security agents abducted him and accuse Thai authorities of complicity or at least overlooking his alleged kidnapping.

In November, two Chinese men who were officially registered as refugees with the United Nations were arrested and repatriated by Thai authorities, infuriating the UN refugee agency.

“When I heard he had gone missing, I was very shocked,” Li’s friend, Liu Xuehong, a Thailand-based activist, told Reuters. “I think he’s in danger now and has probably been arrested.”

Shi said Thai police refused to accept her report of her husband’s disappearance, asking her to contact the Chinese embassy.

Pol Gen Dechnarong Sutticharnbancha, a spokesman for the Royal Thai Police, said he had no knowledge of Li’s case.

A spokesman for the Thai government did not immediately comment on the disappearance of Li Xin or the alleged visit by officials to Gui Minhai’s apartment. He said he would look into the matter and reply at a later time.

By Oliver Holmes

Continue Reading

CTN News App

CTN News App

Recent News

BUY FC 24 COINS

compras monedas fc 24

Volunteering at Soi Dog

Find a Job

Jooble jobs

Free ibomma Movies