2023-07-29 13:02:00
A Taiwanese businessman who was jailed for taking photos of police officers in China has been released
Beijing: Taiwanese businessman Lee Meng Chu, who was jailed for photographing police officers in the Chinese city of Shenzhen, has been released. In 2019, Lee was arrested on charges of espionage. He is returning to Taiwan following being imprisoned in the country for more than 1,400 days. He was released on Monday. He arrived at the Beijing airport wearing a mask emblazoned with the Taiwanese flag to return to his home country.
The BBC reported that he cried at Tokyo’s Henade airport and said he would not return to China following going through immigration procedures.
In 2019, Lee was jailed for photographing police officers in Shenzhen. He was arrested on charges of espionage and leaking national secrets. He was released from prison in 2021 but was prevented from leaving China.
In 2019, Lee visited China during a work trip. He was working in a tech company. At the time of Lee’s visit to China, pro-democracy protests were ongoing in Hong Kong. Before leaving for China, Lee said he watched rallies and handed out leaflets of support. Then he went to Shenzhen to meet his colleague.
Hundreds of policemen gathered at the stadium in Shenzhen. Lee had seen this from his hotel room and went to the stadium and took some pictures. Lee says that others had also taken such pictures and did not violate the police cordon.
While returning from Shenzhen, the airport authorities checked 10 cameras that were being carried for business purposes. His luggage and phone were then searched. The pamphlet and photos were found from this. The arrest followed. But Lee says he was not a spy, but was taking photos out of curiosity as a bystander.
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