Jekyll2022-12-18T04:08:25+00:00/feed.xmlFree Kai LiWebsite dedicated to the cause of freeing Kai Li, husband and father, US citizen sentenced to 10 years in Chinese prison on politically motivated espionage chargesFamily of American imprisoned in Shanghai urges U.S. government to not forget its most vulnerable citizens amidst COVID-19 lockdown2022-04-13T00:00:00+00:002022-04-13T00:00:00+00:00/misc/2022/04/13/COVID-lockdown<p><strong>13 Apr 2022</strong></p>
<p>On Tuesday, the U.S. State Department ordered nonessential employees at the U.S. Consulate General in Shanghai, China to leave the city due to increasing restrictions related to COVID-19.</p>
<p>Harrison Li is the son of Kai Li, a U.S. citizen serving a 10-year sentence at Qingpu Prison in Shanghai. He says the U.S. Consulate’s latest order comes despite the Consulate having done “next to nothing” to advocate for the most vulnerable Americans in Shanghai: the incarcerated.</p>
<p>According to Li, the Consulate was informed last week that prisoners at Qingpu would not be able to make phone calls until further notice. This includes phone calls from consular officers, which, since 2020, have substituted for monthly in-person consular visits required by the U.S.-China Consular Convention of 1980.</p>
<p>Li added that the ban on phone calls effectively cuts off prisoners’ only means of communication with the outside world, making it impossible to obtain updates on the well-being of prisoners including his father, who has suffered a stroke behind bars.</p>
<p>“There are widespread reports of ordinary citizens in Shanghai who are unable to procure even basic necessities. I shudder to think of how much worse conditions might be in prison. Because phone calls have been suddenly banned, nobody has any way of knowing, other than relying on the word of the prison authorities, who are incentivized to paint a rosy picture of prison conditions,” Li said in a written statement.</p>
<p>Prisoners at Qingpu are also now being confined to their cells 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Li says the cell where his father is held holds 12 people in a very small area and lacks any climate control.</p>
<p>Qingpu Prison came under global media scrutiny in 2019 when a Christmas card purchased in the UK contained a note allegedly from a foreign inmate at the prison who claimed to be “forced to work against [their] will” and called for the attention of human rights organizations.</p>
<p>Last November, a bipartisan group of 15 Senators and members of Congress sent a letter to U.S. President Joe Biden urging him to prioritize the release of Kai Li. Congress and Li’s family never received a response.</p>
<p>Shortly afterwards, American Daniel Hsu, who was prevented from leaving China for over four years under an “exit ban”, was allowed to return home in advance of a phone call between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping.</p>
<p>But Li says there has been little movement on his father’s case, stating that in the November call, President Biden only made an oblique reference to the general issue of arbitrary detention, without bringing up any cases by name. There is no indication his father’s case was raised by the President in any subsequent engagement.</p>
<p>He stressed the need for President Biden to initiate a coordinated, interagency effort to bring home his father and other Americans arbitrarily detained in China. Li said he feels his family’s advocacy efforts on behalf of his father are hampered by government bureaucracy and lack of effective coordination across government agencies.</p>
<p>Li hopes to meet with the President as soon as possible, noting that in March, President Biden met with the family of Trevor Reed, an American and former U.S. Marine detained in Russia.</p>13 Apr 2022Following Release of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, U.S. Citizen Remains Imprisoned on State Security Charges in China2021-11-04T00:00:00+00:002021-11-04T00:00:00+00:00/misc/2021/11/04/Congressional-Letter<p><strong>4 Nov 2021</strong></p>
<p>On Thursday, a bipartisan group of 15 Senators and members of Congress sent a letter to President Biden urging him to prioritize the release of Kai Li, a US citizen serving a 10-year prison sentence in China since 2016 on trumped up charges of “espionage” and “stealing state secrets”.</p>
<p>The letter makes extensive references to a decision from the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention earlier this year, which, among other things, stated that there was no legal basis for the arrest of Li, a businessman who, according to his son, was a small business owner who served for 25 years as a marketing representative for Spectrolab, Inc., a subsidiary of Boeing.</p>
<p>The renewed push for Li’s release comes just a few weeks after the release of two Canadian citizens, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, who, like Li, were accused by the Chinese government of espionage, in cases that many observers viewed as tit-for-tat retaliation for the detention of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver in December 2018, due to an extradition request from the United States.</p>
<p>The Michaels were released just hours after Ms. Meng was allowed to return to China after reaching a deal with prosecutors. As the letter notes, two American siblings, Victor and Cynthia Liu, were allowed to return to the United States following the lifting of an exit ban, just a day after Ms. Meng and the two Canadians were freed.</p>
<p>The congressional letter highlights poor prison conditions — described as “cruel” — and Li’s declining health in captivity. Since his arrest more than five years ago, Li was diagnosed with a small stroke, hypertension, and chronic gastritis, in addition to suffering a bout of shingles. Li’s access to nutritional supplements has also been arbitrarily restricted by prison authorities on numerous occasions, most recently in the last several weeks.</p>
<p>Signatories on the letter include Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), the Chair and Co-Chair, respectively, of the Congressional Executive Commission on China. They are joined by several members of Congress from Li’s home state of New York, alongside New York Senators Schumer and Gillibrand.</p>4 Nov 2021Following Release of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, U.S. Citizen Remains Imprisoned on State Security Charges in China2021-09-24T00:00:00+00:002021-09-24T00:00:00+00:00/misc/2021/09/24/Response-to-Michaels<p><strong>24 Sept 2021</strong></p>
<p>Following the release of Canadian citizens Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor from China just hours after the withdrawal of a US extradition request for Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, Kai Li, a US citizen, remains behind bars in Shanghai’s Qingpu Prison, serving a 10-year sentence on charges of “stealing state secrets” that appear nearly identical to those levied against the Canadians.</p>
<p>“The fact that the two Michaels were released mere hours after Ms. Meng boarded a plane back to China —- despite Mr. Spavor being recently sentenced to 11 years in prison — shows unequivocally how the Chinese government uses vague ‘national security’ charges against foreigners for political leverage,” said Harrison Li, the son of Kai Li, 58.</p>
<p>“I am glad to hear that the Canadians are finally returning home; they’ve suffered unjustly for almost three years. But I worry about my father, who’s spent almost twice as long as the Michaels behind bars for the same reason, yet hasn’t gotten the same amount of attention. It’s unacceptable that the United States continues has allowed the Chinese government to arbitrarily detain one of its citizens for political gain for more than half a decade,” added Li.</p>
<p>Earlier this year, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention ruled that “the deprivation of liberty of Mr. Li lacks a legal basis” and that “the violations of the right to a trial and due process are of such gravity as to give Mr. Li’s deprivation of liberty and arbitrary character”.</p>
<p>It recommends that the Chinese government release Li immediately, in addition to providing him a right to “compensation and other reparations.” Elevated risks of COVID-19 transmission in detention centers are cited as an additional reason for the government to take “urgent action to ensure [Mr. Li’s] immediate release”.</p>
<p>Kai Li was first detained in September 2016. His family says he was arrested at Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport on a trip to visit his family for the one-year anniversary of his mother’s passing.</p>
<p>After spending several months under “residential surveillance at a designated location” (RSDL), a practice of in communicado detention widely viewed as tantamount to enforced disappearance, Li was held at a pre-trial detention center for over two years before being sentenced to 10 years in prison, a 50,000 RMB fine, and deportation.</p>
<p>As with Spavor’s 11-year prison sentence handed down last month, Li’s sentence did not specify whether deportation would occur before, during, or after the prison sentence.</p>
<p>According to his family, Li suffered a stroke sometime last year, and has complained about an irregular heartbeat and high blood pressure. He reports being able to sleep only 3-4 hours a night due to the prison conditions.</p>24 Sept 2021United Nations group rules China’s imprisonment of American on espionage charges to be arbitrary2021-02-11T00:00:00+00:002021-02-11T00:00:00+00:00/misc/2021/02/11/WGAD<p><strong>11 Feb 2021</strong></p>
<p>A panel of independent human rights experts at the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) has declared the imprisonment of US citizen Kai Li in China to be arbitrary.
In its decision, the WGAD ruled that “the deprivation of liberty of Mr. Li lacks a legal basis” and that “the violations of the right to a trial and due process are of such gravity as to give Mr. Li’s deprivation of liberty and arbitrary character”. It recommends that the Chinese government release Mr. Li immediately, in addition to providing him a right to “compensation and other reparations.” Elevated risks of COVID-19 transmission in detention centers are cited as an additional reason for the government to take “urgent action to ensure [Mr. Li’s] immediate release”.</p>
<p>The WGAD was founded in 1991 by resolution of the former UN Commission on Human Rights. One of its principal objectives is to conduct an impartial investigation into whether individual cases of detention violate international human rights laws. The ruling on Mr. Li’s case marks only the third time in the organization’s history that the detention of a US citizen in China was ruled to be arbitrary.</p>
<p>Mr. Li was first detained in September 2016 by agents of China’s Ministry of State Security. In 2018, Mr. Li was sentenced to 10 years in prison following a secret trial, in which he was convicted of endangering state security by stealing ”state secrets” on behalf of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation. His defense attorney has maintained that the alleged secrets are simply facts that are freely available online, although Chinese state secrets laws are broad in the freedom they give the authorities to retroactively declare information to be a state secret, including facts from the public domain.</p>
<p>In recent years, a growing number of foreign nationals have been arrested by the Chinese government for endangering state security in cases that many observers believe are for political leverage and have called “diplomatic hostage taking”, giving China bargaining chips against foreign governments. It is believed that Mr. Li is the only US citizen currently held in China on state security charges.</p>
<p>An unnamed “source” that provided information for the WGAD decision highlights that Mr. Li was placed under “residential surveillance at a designated location” (RSDL), during which he was denied access to legal counsel and harshly interrogated day and night by state security agents at an unknown location. The WGAD found this source to have provided a credible argument that Mr. Li was tortured, and consequently will refer the case to the UN’s Special Rappoteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.</p>
<p>Mr. Li is currently serving his sentence at Qingpu Prison in Shanghai. Family and consular visits to Mr. Li have been suspended indefinitely since January 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During that time, Mr. Li has suffered a stroke which his family states is a result of stress-induced hypertension and poor prison nutrition. In lieu of consular visits, Mr. Li is allowed three 7.5-minute phone calls each month to his family, although these calls are monitored and his family says that he has experienced threats of punishment for urging his family to advocate upon his behalf in these calls. He has also been threatened for writing letters to elected US officials.</p>11 Feb 2021Son of American appeals for help from senior White House officials to free father imprisoned in China on charges of endangering state security2020-09-03T00:00:00+00:002020-09-03T00:00:00+00:00/misc/2020/09/03/white-house-meetings<p><strong>Washington, DC 03 Sept 2020</strong> – The son of an American imprisoned in China since 2016 for allegedly endangering state security by stealing “state secrets” met on Thursday with several senior White House officials to lobby for the release of his father, US businessman Kai Li.</p>
<p>Harrison Li, 22, said that in recent weeks and months, the arbitrariness of China’s state security laws have become apparent to the world with the use of the recent national security law passed in Hong Kong to arbitrarily detain its residents.</p>
<p>“At a time when the complete disregard of the Chinese government for the rule of law is clearer than ever before, I hope that top US officials will take more consistent action to win my dad’s release,” said Li. “My father has never endangered Chinese state security.”</p>
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<em style="color:black">Harrison Li and his mother stand outside the West Wing of the White House in Washington, DC following "productive" meetings with senior White House officials on September 3, 2020.</em>
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<p>Li, who has temporarily relocated to the Washington DC area to advocate for his father, acknowledged the past efforts of various high-level officials to raise his father’s case with their Chinese counterparts, but added that the case had not been raised in “quite some time”, which he attributed to the worsening state of US-China relations. Still, he said he felt his conversations with officials on Thursday were “quite productive” and hoped they would help ignite a higher profile conversation about his father’s plight.</p>
<p>Li also expressed concern about how the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has impacted conditions at Shanghai’s Qingpu Prison, where his father is being held. Family and consular visits to Mr. Li have been suspended indefinitely since January 2020, allegedly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, despite Mr. Li reporting multiple health issues including heart disease and inadequate nutrition. In a recent phone call to his family, Mr. Li described the current prison diet as lacking in fresh produce and protein, and has repeatedly requested nutritional supplements from family, both through internal prison channels and the US Consulate in Shanghai. All such requests have been categorically denied by the prison authorities.</p>
<p><strong>The Kai Li Story</strong></p>
<p>Kai Li was first detained in September 2016 by agents of China’s Ministry of State Security. In 2018, Mr. Li was sentenced to 10 years in prison following a secret trial, in which he was convicted of endangering state security by stealing “state secrets” on behalf of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation. His defense attorney maintains that the alleged secrets are simply facts that are freely available online, although Chinese state secrets laws are broad in the freedom they give the authorities to retroactively declare something to be a state secret, including facts from the public domain.</p>
<p>In recent years, a growing number of foreign nationals have been arrested by the Chinese government for endangering state security, including Sandy Phan-Gillis from the United States, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig from Canada, and Yang Hengjun from Australia, in cases that most observers believe are for political leverage and even call “diplomatic hostage taking”, giving China bargaining chips against foreign governments.</p>
<p>The Li family maintains he is innocent, and that the charges against him have been trumped up, now politicized and trapped in Sino-American tensions. They point out that Mr. Li was placed under “residential surveillance at a designated location” (RSDL) for over two months, during which he was denied access to all forms of legal counsel and interrogated under duress day and night by state security agents at an unknown location. Earlier this year, several United Nations experts condemned RSDL as a form of forced disappearance placing “individuals at heightened risk of torture, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment”. The practice has been used to detain many human rights activists and dissidents.</p>
<p>Mr. Li has also expressed to his family that his interrogations made it clear his arrest was engineered as an act of retaliation related to a business dispute. Before his arrest, Mr. Li ran an export business as a distributor of solar simulators and related parts for Spectrolab, Inc., a subsidiary of Boeing.</p>
<p><strong>Comment from former Qingpu prisoner Peter Humphrey</strong></p>
<p>“This tragic case of a son seeing his dad locked up in China on trumped-up charges is one of an escalating number of such false imprisonment cases involving Americans and other foreign nationals in China,” said Peter Humphrey, who was similarly imprisoned in China along with his wife, and whose son lost both parents for two years.</p>
<p>“My heart goes out to Harrison Li, a brave young man demanding the freedom of his father Kai Li from Shanghai’s Qingpu Prison, just like my own son fought for me and my wife in 2013-2015. I call upon the White House and all relevant American government and civil institutions to throw their support to Harrison Li and to exert all possible influences to bring his father home.”</p>
<p>“I urge the Chinese government to look closely at the officials who turned a business dispute into a false espionage case and abused Chinese law to get Kai Li imprisoned. Again and again we see powerful Chinese individuals abusing their connections to get people thrown in jail in vendettas. And I would urge the USA and all other governments to fully support the release of citizens who are wrongfully imprisoned in China.”</p>
<p>The family has recently set up a <a href="https://www.freekaili.org">campaign website</a>, as well as a <a href="https://www.change.org/FreeKaiLiNow">petition</a> addressed to President Trump, the State Department, and Congress.</p>Washington, DC 03 Sept 2020 – The son of an American imprisoned in China since 2016 for allegedly endangering state security by stealing “state secrets” met on Thursday with several senior White House officials to lobby for the release of his father, US businessman Kai Li.