The wife of a rights activist who went missing in Thailand last month says she has has spoken to him and believes he is being held by Chinese authorities.
Chinese activist Li Xin disappeared in Thailand on Jan. 11 after leaving Nong Khai for Laos. He had reportedly hoped to return to Thailand to seek political asylum.
Li’s wife He Fangmei says she was called into a police station yesterday and talked to her husband on the phone, AP reported. Li told her he had voluntarily returned to China for investigation, but she believes he was forced to return.
“He said, ‘This is Li Xin. I’m in China. I’m fine. Don’t worry. I came back to China willingly to face investigation,’” He told the Guardian.
“I asked, ‘Why do you have to face an investigation if you didn’t commit any crime?’”
She continued: “I do not believe it. I 100% do not believe it.
“I felt he was forced to say those words, that he said them against his will. Each time I tried to ask him a question he interrupted me.”
Five booksellers have also gone missing from a Hong Kong publisher that sells gossipy political books on China’s Communist Party leaders.
One, Gui Minhai, disappeared from his Pattaya holiday home last October.
But last month he appeared on Chinese state television claiming he had “voluntarily” turned himself into authorities there over a fatal drinking-driving accident 12 years ago.
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