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Zhang Qing has late-stage colon cancer and her husband, human rights activist Yang Maodong, has been blocked from travelling to the US to see her. Photo: Twitter

Battling cancer in the US, Chinese dissident’s wife appeals to authorities to ‘set him free’ so they can reunite

  • Zhang Qing says she’s in a critical condition and her husband, Yang Maodong, should be allowed to travel to the US to see her
  • Human rights activist Yang has been blocked from leaving China to join Zhang and she says she has lost contact with him
The ailing wife of human rights activist Yang Maodong has appealed to the Chinese authorities to allow her husband to leave the country so they can be reunited.

Zhang Qing, 55, has been separated from Yang – who is also known as Guo Feixiong – for the past 15 years. Yang has been barred from leaving China, while Zhang is in Washington, where she is battling late-stage colon cancer.

She told the South China Morning Post on Monday she had been unable to eat or take medication for the past two months due to an intestinal obstruction and that the cancer had metastasised, including to her lungs, liver and gall bladder. Zhang said it was her final wish to see Yang before she died.

“I call on the Chinese authorities to set him free so he can join us in the US. I’m in a critical condition. Things are particularly hard in these cold winter days – we, my family, need him,” Zhang said.

“He should and ought to be able to come at a time like this. There should not be any hindrance … There are many things he needs to take care of.”

Yang Maodong was prevented from leaving China in January, soon after his wife was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Photo: Handout
Yang, who is also 55, has made a number of attempts to leave China this year after Zhang was diagnosed with terminal cancer in early January. That month, the former human rights lawyer was blocked from boarding a flight to the US from Shanghai Pudong International Airport on the grounds of “endangering national security”. Yang responded by launching a hunger strike and sought international attention for the case, but he later disappeared and remains incommunicado.

“He was taken away by the authorities and was being watched somewhere in Guangdong,” Zhang said. “He has lost his freedom for eight months after that.”

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According to his wife, Yang had asked to return home to Hubei province in September, a request that was granted, but it was not clear how much freedom he had been given.

“The authorities never gave a clear ‘no’ after that and it gave us the false hope that he could still come [to the US] somehow,” she said. “To them it’s just a game, but the fact is that I’m dying.”

Yang appealed to Premier Li Keqiang in an open letter last month to be allowed to reunite with his wife, but he disappeared after issuing the letter.

“In November, I was in hospital being treated for a critical intestinal obstruction … we were discussing what cutting-edge treatments might be available and he was desperately trying to raise funds to cover my medical expenses, but then he suddenly disappeared again,” Zhang said.

Yang Maodong has been jailed twice – for a total of 11 years – over a book exposing corruption in Liaoning province, and for taking part in rally against media censorship in Guangzhou. Photo: Handout

A group of 35 academics have also issued an open letter to the Chinese authorities expressing deep concern about the case and calling on Beijing to “respect Chinese law and human dignity by immediately releasing [Yang] so that he can join his wife”.

The group includes academics whose focus is human rights and the rule of law in China including Jerome Cohen, a law professor at New York University, and Perry Link, chancellorial chair professor with the University of California, Riverside.

“Zhang Qing’s condition is deteriorating quickly and the situation is now precarious,” said the letter, issued earlier this month. “The ways in which the relevant offices of the Chinese government have handled this matter violate not only Chinese law but basic standards of humane treatment.”

US Congressman Chris Smith, co-chairman of the bipartisan Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, on Tuesday said he hoped the Chinese authorities would “put politics aside and simply allow the couple to be reunited one last time”.

Smith, a ranking member of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, has previously met Zhang and her daughter about their plight and chaired a congressional hearing on Yang in 2013.

“This is a simple issue of being humane, an act of kindness to a dying woman and her husband,” he said.

Zhang Qing has been living in the US with the couple’s two children for the past 15 years, since her husband was first jailed. Photo: Handout

Zhang said it had been weeks since she last heard from Yang. She is still receiving chemotherapy and said she was in constant pain that prevented her from sleeping.

“Never could I imagine the Chinese authorities were capable of such inhumane cruelty – to keep him locked up when my life is coming to an end, it’s very shocking to me,” she said.

Yang has previously appealed to President Xi Jinping, Premier Li and Public Security Minister Zhao Kezhi to allow him to travel to the US to see Zhang.

He has been jailed twice since 2006 for a total of 11 years over the publication of a book exposing corruption in the northeastern province of Liaoning province and for taking part in a week-long rally against media censorship in Guangzhou.

He has also called for constitutional reform, campaigned for greater democracy and rights protection for political prisoners, and against torturing prisoners.

His wife Zhang has been living with their 25-year-old daughter and 20-year-old son in the United States for the past 15 years since Yang was first jailed.

“I have never stopped advocating for him,” she said. “I don’t know what else I can say now.”

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