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Wang Yan remembers the last time she heard her husband’s voice, more than five years ago.
It was December 13, 2019, and a Canadian citizen Li Yonghui went to a public square in Shijiazhuang, in the Chinese Province of Hebei, to practice with his wife in Canada with a mobile phone.
“Suddenly the call ended, as someone grabbed his phone. And I called another family (in China) and no one knew what happened,” Wang recalled.
Li seized the city police, who accused him of the social media that he “allegedly illegally raised public funds” through his Qingyidai, a person’s borrowing platform.
The Canadian businessman Li Yonghui, who has been detained in China since 2019, was seen in this undoubted photo provided by his family.
Canadian Printing/Ho Wang Yan
Has been in custody since then, without ever being tried or convicted.
Now his family takes a rare step of public speech to seek resolution in his case.
Global Applys Canada says he is aware of about 100 Canadians who were closed in China.
However, it is uncommon for their families to speak in Canada or to advocate decisions about their situations.
Chinese authorities began suppression of 2019 on network borrowers, but Wang maintains his husband’s innocence in the management of Qingyidai, described by Chinese media as the largest such platform in Hebei.
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“Of course, we believe he is innocent, but if he violated some laws or rules, please put him on a trial and punish him,” Wang said in an interview with a Canadian print in Vancouver where Liina’s family lives.
“We have no problem with that … but last year there were nothing happening.”
Wang said if he had not visited custody in Hebei from anyone but his lawyer and staff from the Canadian Embassy.
The left daughter, Wanda, was 21 when her father was arrested. He regrets “basically a little grew up in my adult life without him.”
“My father, he has this habit not to really talk about himself,” Wandi said, remembering their last conversation before arrest. “He just asked me about what’s going on in my life,” she said.
“I am the youngest in my family, so I always have this tendency to protect me a little from what is happening.”
In response to the E -hasty questions, Global Alfairs Canada said he was aware of a lie’s custody and provided consular assistance, but no additional details were published for considering privacy.
Liove families’ comments come after Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly said last month that the Chinese authorities recently executed four Canadians, all with dual citizenship and all accused of drug -related crimes.
Former Chinese detainee Michael Kovrig said to the E -even one that he would advise the relatives of the detainees to “get a good Chinese lawyer.”
He said he would also press the Canadian government to advocate a detainee, as well as contacting human rights organizations – but that could antagonize Chinese authorities.
“Understand that there is a risk that if you press the decision, the court may impose a relatively sharp sentence,” he said. “What they want is repentance and confession, and they may be willing to offer a minor punishment in exchange for it.
“It would be a lawyer to negotiate.”
Kovrig and colleague Canadian Michael was sleeping in 2018 and held more than 1,000 days, charged with spying on the case of the Canadian government said it was a false effort to press Canada to release executive director Huawei Meng Wanzhou.
Wang said she couldn’t comment on recent executions in China because she was not familiar with the circumstances of these cases.
But she said their family was increasingly concerned because they had arisen -the detention appeared and that health problems occurred. She said her husband had high blood pressure, and his guards refused to allow him to see the dentist.
Kovrig said that Wang was not allowed to talk to his husband in accordance with what he saw from others in Chinese custody.
He said that although the conditions can vary between different detention centers, Chinese objects usually “do not meet the basic standards of UN -Nelson Mandela rules”, referring to the minimum standards of the United Nations for the treatment of prisoners.
“The prisoners are usually limited to a cell with a limited access to the outside space to move,” he said. “Very limited access to reading books. No media. No writing material. Maybe some television in the evening. Sleep on a hard … a bowl in a crowded cell with more colleagues.
Detention also probably means constant supervision, limited bathrooms and “zero privacy,” Kovrig said.
Wanda did she say that she was holding hope for her father’s safe return to Canada.
“Ours we only hope that the word is bypassed and that, hopefully, because if more people know about it, the Government in China may be a little more stuck to make a decision on the case and release my father,” she said.
Wang Yan said she was aware of possible risks in speech, but all she wanted is a movement and security in her husband case.
“We have no choice,” she said.
& copy 2025. Canadian printing
