In China, traces of Li Yanhe, a publisher originally from Taiwan, the de facto independent island that China claims as its own, have been lost for days: Li Yanhe had founded and worked in a publishing house that was very critical of the Chinese government . It seems that he was arrested while visiting some relatives in China, and his case recalls that of the five booksellers who disappeared in 2016 in Hong Kong, the Chinese administrative region in which the central government has progressively eroded civil and political freedoms and rights.
Li Yanhe is also known as Fucha and the publishing house he founded, called Gusa, is quite well known locally for its highly critical positions against the Communist Party of China, of which Chinese President Xi Jinping is secretary.
Among other things, Gusa published books on a series of subjects which it is very difficult to talk about freely in China: such as the Tiananmen Square massacre, which took place in 1989, when the Chinese army violently repressed the large demonstrations of students and workers who demanded democracy and respect for human rights, or the abuses and systematic violence of the Chinese government against the Uyghurs, an ethnic group with a Muslim majority, in the western region of Xinjiang, but also corruption within the Chinese Communist Party.
Li Yanhe, who was born in China but moved to Taiwan in 2009, has not been heard from since last Thursday: when he disappeared he was in China, presumably in Shanghai, where he had gone to visit some relatives. The hypothesis that he was arrested was done for the first time since Bei LingChinese activist and writer who, like Li Yanhe, has very critical positions towards the Chinese government: second Bei Ling, Li Yanhe was arrested in Shanghai by the Chinese police.
Meanwhile, the Council for Mainland Affairs, an agency of the Taiwanese government which, among other things, deals with managing relations with China and some of its administrative regions, has announced that Li Yanhe is fine, without giving further details as requested by the same family as the publisher for privacy reasons. At the moment it is not known what could he be accused of. In 2016, five Hong Kong booksellers who, like Li Yanhe, published books critical of the Chinese government, were charged with “illegal activities.”
Of the five booksellers who disappeared in Hong Kong, three – Lui Bo, Cheung Jiping and Lee Bo – were released soon after: Once back, Lee Bo he declared that he no longer intends to continue his activities. Another, the best known, Gui Minhai, was released after several years and then arrested again and sentenced, in 2020, to 10 years in prison on charges of “providing secret information overseas”. Another, Lam Wing-Kee, had reopened his bookstore after being released, and had done so in Taiwan, deeming it freer than Hong Kong.