US implores China to let human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang reunite with family after ‘unjust detention’
- Wang was released into house arrest 14 days ago but has not been allowed to rejoin his wife and son in Beijing
- ‘We remain very concerned about reports of his declining physical and mental health, and of his mistreatment in prison,’ US State Department says
The US government has called on Beijing to allow Chinese human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang to rejoin his family after releasing him from an “unjust detention” into house arrest.
US State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said on Monday that Wang, who was detained in a 2015 nationwide crackdown that targeted hundreds of human rights lawyers and activists, must be reunited with his wife, Li Wenzu, and seven-year-old son, and used the occasion of Wang’s scheduled release to issue a broader call for amnesty.
Wang is still unable to join his family in Beijing after being released into house arrest 14 days ago in Jinan in Shandong province, Li told the Post.
The State Department also mentioned Yu Wensheng, “as well as other Chinese citizens who are in detention simply for exercising their human rights and fundamental freedoms in pursuit of a more equitable and just society, governed by the rule of law”.
Yu was detained and disbarred in January 2018 and arrested on subversion charges soon afterwards.