China: RSF calls for the release of independent journalist Li Weizhong
The Chinese police have confirmed that journalist Li Weizhong, who has been detained for a month, is being held incommunicado for “inciting subversion of state power”. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) demands his immediate release.
On 15 November, the Chinese news website Weiquanwang revealed that independent journalist Li Weizhong, who writes under the pen name Li Yuanfeng, had been placed by the Chinese regime under Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location (RSDL) on the grounds of "inciting subversion of state power" a criminal offence for which he could face “fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years”. RSDL is the Chinese state’s official euphemism for incommunicado detention at a “black jail,” a particularly harsh form of detention designed to break civil rights and human rights defenders. The punishment cannot exceed six months under China’s code of criminal procedure.
On 10th October, Li was suddenly taken away by police in Yuanjiang City, in the southern province of Hunan Province; his Twitter and Facebook accounts stopped posting on the same day. He was first held for a less serious charge, “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”, before more serious accusations were brought against him.
“By detaining Li Weizhong incommunicado on trumped-up charges, the Chinese regime shows its determination to silence one of the country’s last independent journalists at all costs. The international community should increase pressure on Beijing to secure Li’s release alongside all the other journalists and press freedom defenders detained in China.
The 54-year-old journalist has worked as an independent journalist for the past decade, publishing content on both his personal blog and social media under his pseudonym. In the 2010’s he was writing for the Chinese online media Boxun.
Since Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, he has fostered a media culture reminiscent of the Maoist era, where seeking information or sharing it freely is criminalised. RSF’s report ”The Great Leap Backwards of Journalism in China”, reveals the regime’s extensive efforts to control media outlets and the dissemination of information — both domestically and internationally.
China ranks 172nd out of 180 countries and territories in the 2024 RSF World Press Freedom Index, and is the world's largest jailor of journalists and press freedom defenders;at least 123 are currently detained.
