Two Chinese Americans are at the center of discussion around Americans detained in China after the release of Chinese American pastor David Lin on September 16.
Lin, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in China, faced nearly 20 years — cut down from a life sentence — for allegedly collaborating with a non-government-backed church in China, reported NPR.
The Congressional-Executive Committee on China (CECC) held a hearing on September 18 for family members of American detainees and former detainees themselves to testify about their experiences.
One notable testimony was that of Harrison Li, the son of Chinese American Kai Li, a businessman who has been detained in the People’s Republic since 2016.
“I have now spent a third of my life missing my dad,” Harrison Li said to the CECC.
Harrison Li is a Ph.D. candidate at Stanford University set to complete his degree in Statistics next year. His father was arrested in China when Harrison Li was a junior completing his Bachelor’s degree in Statistics and Mathematics at Harvard University, according to his LinkedIn.
Harrison Li has a “small website” that resembles the simplicity and barrenness of the Free Kai Li website. Harrison Li’s website briefly introduces his academic and career background, with the largest of four short paragraphs advocating for his father’s return to the U.S.
“Just as I was taking the train down to D.C., David Lin arrived back home in the United States from China,” Harrison Li recalled before the CECC. “With each of those successes, my mom and I have experienced a strange mix of emotions: joy and excitement for the reunited families, but also growing frustration and doubt about my dad’s case. When will it be his turn?”
In 2020, a U.N. Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary Detention report indicated that China had broken international human rights regulations in Kai Li’s situation and 95 others between 1991 and 2020.
Kai Li, a naturalized U.S. citizen residing in New York, returned to his birth country of China for the one-year anniversary of his mother’s death but was detained in Shanghai after two and a half months of surveillance for alleged espionage on behalf of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Harrison Li said his father, who is currently 62 years old, is “running out” of time, as the presidential election is underway.
The Working Group found that Kai Li saw unnecessary judicial delays, dismissal of both Chinese and international due process laws, and potential torture, citing Kai Li’s restricted external communication. The prison where Kai Li is completing his sentence has previously garnered attention for multiple allegations of human rights abuses after a 6-year-old girl in the U.K. found a cry for help in a greeting card. The Working Group further called for Kai Li’s release and referred his case to the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, but Harrison Li told the CECC that progress had not been made in his father’s case.
Harrison Li concluded that the weeks leading up to November’s election are critical. He said the new administration would take months or years to reorganize its communication structure and urged sitting President Joseph Biden to act with haste.
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