World News | China Arrests Taiwanese for Publishing Books Criticizing the Communist Party

HONG KONG, April 26 (ANI): Chinese authorities on Tuesday announced the formal arrest of pro-independence political activist Jerry Yang from Taiwan on suspicion of “separatism” after he was detained for more than eight months in the eastern Zhejiang province, U.S. CNN reports.

Last August, pro-democracy activist and pro-independence politician Jerry Yang was detained by Chinese state security in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, hours after then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi concluded a key visit to Taipei.

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China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate announced on social media that Wenzhou’s procuratorate had approved Yang’s arrest on charges of secession after the city’s State Security Bureau concluded its investigation and handed over the case to the procuratorate for “review and prosecution,” according to CNN.

Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council said it had repeatedly contacted mainland authorities about Yang’s detention but had received no direct response.

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“The government reaffirms Yang’s innocence and calls on the Chinese Communist Party to release Yang and allow him to return to Taiwan as soon as possible,” the commission said in a statement to CNN.

Yang Yuanqing, 33, has been active in Taiwanese social movements for more than a decade and ran unsuccessfully for a seat in Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan.

In 2019, he served as the vice chairman of the Taiwan National Party, a fringe political party for Taiwan independence. The party has now been disbanded, according to Taiwan’s Interior Ministry. He published books critical of the Communist Party.

China’s state broadcaster CCTV reported on Aug. 3 last year that Yang had been detained by the Wenzhou State Security Bureau for engaging in “separatist activities” that supported Taiwan’s independence and endangered national security.

China’s ruling Communist Party claims Taiwan as its own territory, although it has never controlled it, and has refused to rule out the use of force to “unify” the island with mainland China. (Arnie)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)