{"id":731,"date":"2020-09-26T21:35:20","date_gmt":"2020-09-27T04:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fdcusa.org\/?p=731"},"modified":"2020-09-26T21:35:20","modified_gmt":"2020-09-27T04:35:20","slug":"six-former-canadian-ministers-call-for-release-of-jailed-chinese-dissident-in-open-letter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fdcusa.org\/?p=731","title":{"rendered":"Six former Canadian ministers call for release of jailed Chinese dissident in open letter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

OTTAWAPUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 15, 2020 
https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/politics\/article-six-former-canadian-ministers-call-for-release-of-jailed-chinese\/#c-image-0<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wang Bingzhang is seen in a Feb. 6, 1998, file photo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Six former Canadian justice and foreign affairs ministers have penned an open letter urging China to immediately release an ailing Chinese dissident and allow him to return to Canada to live with his family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wang Bingzhang, a human-rights advocate who studied at McGill University\u2019s faculty of medicine, has been languishing in a Chinese prison for the past 18 years after Chinese secret police kidnapped him in Vietnam in 2002 and smuggled him to China, where he was sentenced to life in prison in solitary confinement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the letter to Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, the six former Canadian ministers say Dr. Wang has suffered three debilitating strokes and has been denied access to family members who live in Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe continues to suffer from other chronic diseases, including high blood pressure and deep vein thrombosis, putting his life at extreme risk, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic,\u201d they wrote. \u201cYet he has consistently been denied access to Canadian family members, most of whom have been barred from entering China.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The six \u2013 former justice ministers Anne McLellan, Irwin Cotler and Allan Rock and former foreign affairs ministers Lloyd Aworthy, Lawrence Cannon and Andre Ouellet \u2013 asked for the immediate release of Dr. Wang \u201cso that his needless and wrongful suffering may end and that he may live out his remaining days with his family in Canada.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They also urged Beijing to provide Dr. Wang\u2019s family with his medical records, so an independent assessment can be made of his care, and to lift the restrictions that bar his family members from China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Wang is a Chinese national, but many of his immediate family members, including his younger brother, his wife and children, are Canadian citizens and residents. His sisters live in British Columbia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The former Canadian politicians say Dr. Wang \u2013 the former leader of the overseas Chinese democracy movement \u2013 was illegally abducted in Vietnam and convicted of trumped-up espionage and terrorism charges in a sham trial that lasted only half a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The six say there is new evidence from witnesses that their testimony was false.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt trial, Dr. Wang was denied the opportunity to speak or present evidence, and no credible evidence or live witness testimony was presented against him,\u201d they wrote. \u201cMoreover there is now powerful evidence that the case against Dr. Wang was falsified. At the very least this mass of compelling exonerating evidence calls for a new trial.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

International organizations such as the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights have voiced their opposition to Dr. Wang\u2019s imprisonment, calling it arbitrary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parliament and the U.S. Congress have passed resolutions calling on China to release Dr. Wang and allow him to return to Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Chinese embassy in Ottawa did not have an immediate response to the open letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Know what is happening in the halls of power with the day\u2019s top political headlines and commentary as selected by Globe editors (subscribers only). Sign up today<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OTTAWAPUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 15, 2020 https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/politics\/article-six-former-canadian-ministers-call-for-release-of-jailed-chinese\/#c-image-0 Wang Bingzhang is seen in a Feb. 6, 1998, file photo. Six former Canadian justice and foreign affairs ministers have penned…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fdcusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fdcusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fdcusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fdcusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fdcusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fdcusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fdcusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fdcusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fdcusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}