Chris Smith Brings Wife Of Imprisoned Taiwanese Man To SOTU

Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ4) invited Li Ching-yu, wife of jailed democracy and human rights advocate Li Ming-cheh, as his guest to Tuesday night's State of the Union Address.

Smith, a Republican who has represented New Jersey's fourth congressional district for decades, is a ranking member of the Subcommittee on Global Human Rights and past Chair of the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC).

Every Member of Congress receives only one ticket to the State of the Union, and Li Ching-yu is Rep. Smith’s exclusive guest.

“Li Ching-yu’s very presence helps highlight the unjust imprisonment of Li Ming-cheh and the over 1,300 prisoners of conscience in China, many who are tortured and jailed for little more than peacefully supporting human rights and the rule of law,” Smith said.

Li Ming-Cheh, a Taiwan community college worker and NGO volunteer, was a prominent supporter of democracy in Taiwan and of human rights in China. He discussed justice and human rights with Chinese friends through the messaging app WeChat and sent his friends books on democracy. He was arrested for “engaging in activities that endangered national security” in March 2017, while visiting mainland China.

Li was charged with “subversion of state power” and sentenced to five years in prison on November 28, 2017. More information on Li’s case can be found on the CECC’s Political Prisoner Database.

“Because there is a link between Beijing’s domestic repression and its foreign aggression, human rights advocacy in China is first and foremost a humanitarian concern, as well as a critical security concern and tied directly to U.S. national interests in the region,” Smith said. “Like so many others in China, Li Ming-cheh’s continued arbitrary detention and the forced labor he has endured while detained are unacceptable and violate China’s many commitments under international human rights law. He should be released immediately and allowed to be reunited with his wife.”

Smith chaired a hearing of the global human rights subcommittee at which Li Ching-Yu testified on May 18, 2017, entitled “Disappeared, Jailed and Tortured in China: Wives Petition for Their Husbands’ Freedom.” She testified with the wives of currently imprisoned human rights lawyers Jiang Tianyong, Tang Jingling, and Wang Quanzhang (via videotaped testimony).

“In addition to prisoners of conscience, we must continue to object to the Chinese Communist Party’s relentless efforts to ostracize, intimidate, and isolate democratic Taiwan,” Smith said. “Taiwan is a model of democratic stability and rights protections and has recently faced an egregious escalation in military incursions, cyber attacks, diplomatic sleights, and election interference from Mainland China. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the U.S.-Taiwan Relations Act, and the U.S. must reaffirm its commitment to the Act and the Six Assurances as the foundation of U.S.-Taiwan relations and peace and prosperity in the region.”

Smith has held over 60 hearings on China and recently introduced the bipartisan Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act with Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) to focus U.S. efforts on addressing the mass internment of over a million ethnic Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in “political re-education camps” in China. Smith recently wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post, “The World Must Stand Against China’s War on Religion.”

Photo provided by Rep. Smith's office.