Fucha Released, But Prevented From Returning to Taiwan

English Photo Credit: Bei Ling/Twitter

NEWS BROKE EARLIER this month that Chinese publisher Li Yanhe, better known by his pen name of Fucha and best known as the editor-in-chief of Gusa Publishing, has been released from imprisonment. But though he was released in May, Li has reportedly not been allowed to return to Taiwan, despite that he has been freed and has been able to meet with family members.

Li is a Taiwanese national by marriage. While originally a Chinese national from Liaoning, Li acquired Taiwanese nationality through marriage to a Taiwanese person. Li had been residing in Taiwan since 2009. Namely, Gusa Publishing frequently released books critical of the Chinese government. This includes He Qingilian’s Red Infiltration: The Reality of China’s Global Media Expansion and translations, such as the Chinese-language edition of Louisa Lim’s People’s Republic of Amnesia. Fucha founded Gusa Publishing in Taiwan in 2009 and has been residing in Taiwan since 2013.

Li was originally detained during a trip to China in March 2023. Li had reportedly traveled to China not only to meet relatives and friends, but in order to give up his Chinese household registration, seeing as Taiwanese law requires those who acquire Taiwanese nationality to give up Chinese household registration. There was initially a lack of details on what had led to his imprisonment.

In February 2025, it emerged that Li had secretly been tried. Consequently, Li was sentenced to three years of imprisonment for “inciting to split the country,” as well as a fine of 50,000 yuan, and one year of deprivation of political rights.

For its part, the Mainland Affairs Council has declined to comment on the matter, citing the wishes of Li’s family. Sometimes it is the case that family members of individuals imprisoned in Taiwan do not hope for the Taiwanese government to comment on such cases, seeing as the Chinese government may retaliate by increasing the length of sentences.

This is not the first time that a Taiwanese national detained in China was prevented from returning to Taiwan after being released from imprisonment. This, too, occurred with Taiwanese businessman Morrison Lee Meng-chu, who was sentenced to one year and ten months and deprived of his rights to political participation for two years after crossing into Shenzhen from Hong Kong in September 2019.

It is thought that Lee was arrested because he participated in some of the mass demonstrations that took place in Hong Kong in 2019, originally against an extradition bill that would have allowed for Hongkongers to be deported to China to face charges. It was feared that the bill would be used to politically persecute critics in Hong Kong.

Lee had photos of the protests on his phone at the time he crossed into China. Likewise, Lee also took photos of Chinese military vehicles amassed in Shenzhen and sent them to friends. At the time, there were fears that China was amassing military vehicles and paramilitary forces in Shenzhen in preparation for a violent crackdown on the Hong Kong protests.

When foreigners are arrested in China, they are normally deported back to their home countries after serving their sentence. Foreigners have no right to political participation that they could be deprived of, to begin with, and so are sent back after the end of their term. But the situation is more complex regarding Taiwanese, since the Chinese government does not regard them as foreigners, given China’s claims of sovereignty over Taiwan.

In this sense, one notes that deprivation of political rights has been used as a pretext to prevent Taiwanese nationals from returning to Taiwan even after the end of their jail sentences. In the case of Morrison Lee, Lee was eventually allowed to leave, first traveling to Japan to lay low before returning to Taiwan. It is thought that China may aim to prevent Taiwanese nationals from returning to Taiwan immediately after the end of their sentences in order to minimize media attention to the matter, preferring that they return after the media has moved on to other topics.