BEIJING – “We confirm that a local employee of the EU delegation in China has been arrested and detained since September 2021 and we are concerned about his health. Despite multiple requests from us to the Chinese authorities, so far we have not been informed of the allegations or the specific charges he has to face. We will continue to investigate until we have an adequate answer ”. A spokesman for the European Union directly confirmed the news published by the French newspaper Le Monde to Repubblica. It is the first time that a Chinese employee at a Western diplomatic mission has been arrested.
According to the French daily, the accusation is that of having “caused unrest”: a very generic label that can lead to up to five years in prison. An Dong, born in 1971, was employed in the IT department of the European delegation here in the Chinese capital and would now be detained in the Sichuan province, thousands of kilometers from Beijing. “Within the delegation, An Dong has never hidden his Christian belief”, writes Le Monde.
The first “verbal note” addressed to the Chinese Foreign Ministry was sent by the EU delegation in October. No reply. A second was sent in November: silence. A third, also unanswered, left in February of this year.
“It is well known that these Chinese employees are regularly called upon to report to the authorities. It is to be feared that by arresting one of them on a diplomatic mission, the Chinese authorities will try to scare his colleagues ”, concludes the newspaper.