The Chinese authorities should urgently quash the conviction and free the Taiwan publisher Li Yanhe (李延賀), known by his pen name Fu Cha (富察), Human Rights Watch said today. Fu, who has been detained in China since 2023, was secretly sentenced in February 2025 to three years in prison on charges of "inciting secession." The government has provided little information about his trial or his condition in detention.
Fu, 54, is editor-in-chief of the Taiwanese firm Gūsa Publishing, which has published translated works on global affairs, politics, and history, including some critical of the Chinese government. Originally from China, he became a Taiwanese citizen in early 2023 after living there for over a decade. In March 2023, Fu visited Shanghai, apparently to rescind his Chinese household registration to comply with Taiwanese citizenship requirements. Chinese national security police detained him for publishing works "not in line with the Chinese Community Party's view of history," Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council reported.
"The Chinese authorities have imprisoned Fu Cha for daring to publish books on China that they don't like," said Maya Wang, associate China director at Human Rights Watch. "The groundless case against Fu Cha is an apparent attempt to muffle freedom of expression outside its borders and intimidate Taiwan's vibrant publishing industry."
The Chinese government's treatment of Fu violates his human rights protections, including the rights to freedom of expression, access to information, and to a fair trial. Fu was held under "designated residential surveillance," a form of pretrial detention under Chinese law that allows police to hold suspects incommunicado in secret locations for up to six months in certain kinds of cases. At the end of those six months, suspects must either be formally arrested or released, yet Fu appeared to have been held under such conditions for two years.
On March 17, China's Taiwan Affairs Office publicly stated that Fu had been convicted following an "open trial" in February. But it did not announce his sentence until the following week, when a foreign journalist asked about it during a routine news conference.
The Chinese authorities have yet to specify which of Fu's actions were considered criminal, nor release any legal documents or evidence despite insisting that due process rights were respected. Taiwanese media reported that the Chinese authorities had pressured Fu's family not to speak publicly about his case. There is no indication that Fu had access to lawyers or family members as required by international law.
Taiwan authorities have condemned the lack of transparency surrounding Fu's case. Because Chinese authorities do not recognize Taiwan or Taiwanese nationality, it did not allow Taiwanese authorities access to Fu. The Chinese government should release Fu and allow him to leave China, Human Rights Watch said.
In February, the Chinese Supreme People's Procuratorate held a news conference listing Fu's case and the case of Yang Chih-yuan, a Taiwanese political activist, as "major cases involving the endangering of national security." Yang was sentenced to nine years in prison for "separatism" in August 2024. Singling out these two cases appears to be part of the Chinese government's increasing efforts to intimidate Taiwanese people and reinforce its claims of sovereignty over Taiwan, including by using legal tools.
In recent months, cases of Taiwanese citizens detained in China have been rising, according to data compiled by Taiwan authorities. In October 2024, three Taiwanese members of the religious group I-Kuan Tao were arrested in Guangdong province for "organizing and using secret societies to undermine law enforcement," a crime under article 300 of the Chinese Criminal Law. In early 2025, two Taiwanese members of the Unification Church were arrested in Xiamen City, Guangdong province, for "using cult organizations to destroy the law," also a crime under article 300, allegedly for preaching.
Taiwan has been the last major hub for Chinese-language thought and writing outside the control of the Chinese Communist Party since the Chinese government's repression of fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong. The freewheeling publishing industry in Hong Kong ended after the Chinese government disappeared five Causeway Bay booksellers in 2015, and when it imposed the draconian National Security Law on the city in 2020. Fu's arrest and conviction, an act of Chinese government transnational repression, has had a chilling effect on Taiwan's publishing industry.
"The Chinese government's wrongful imprisonment of Fu Cha has global implications, affecting every writer who wishes to publish in Chinese and reach Chinese readers throughout the world," Wang said. "Foreign governments should speak out about Fu's case and help protect this crucial refuge for Chinese language readers around the world."
