New | Chinese lawyer held in nationwide rights advocates crackdown released and reunited with family in US
Chen Taihe, 45 – taken away last July on suspicion of ‘inciting subversion of state power’ – back with wife and children on March 1
One of the Chinese lawyers swept up in a nationwide crackdown on rights advocates last year has been released and arrived in the United States last Tuesday, he said this week.
We were working together to promote a jury system. We wouldn’t overthrow the regime – I don’t understand why the government sees us as a threat
Chen Taihe, 45, a lawyer and law professor at Guilin Electronic Technology University Law School, was unsure whether his case indicated any change in official attitude towards people caught up in the unprecedented crackdown in July, but urged the authorities to show clemency to others still detained.
He said by phone that he was reunited with his wife and children in San Francisco on March 1.
Chen, one of about 300 lawyers and rights activists interrogated, detained and harassed by police in the July crackdown, said he and his family were “very lucky”, but he failed to comprehend why Guilin police dropped charges against him and allowed him to leave the country.
“I have no way of judging,” he said, but added that he asked to go to the US to be with his wife, who gave birth in late January.
READ MORE: Chinese rights advocates Wang Yu, Bao Longjun formally arrested on subversion charges
He did not know about their departure until days later, when he came out of detention centre on August 12 and was held at another undisclosed location. He was sent home for “residential surveillance” on August 22.
