A court in China has sentenced the editor-in-chief of a Taiwanese publishing house to three years in prison for "inciting separatism", the Chinese government has revealed.
Li Yanhe, a Chinese citizen who was reportedly living in Taiwan, went missing after returning home to visit relatives in Shanghai in March 2023.
The Communist government later announced that Li was allegedly being investigated by anti-espionage authorities. According to rights groups, no news about his well-being or status was made publicly available until March 2025.
Taiwanese media reported last week that he had been tried and sentenced by a court in Shanghai but gave no details. Li was sentenced to three years in prison after the Shanghai First Intermediate People's Court found him guilty of "inciting to split the country", said Chen Binhua, a spokesperson for China's Taiwan Affairs Office.
He added on Wednesday that the editor was fined 50,000 yuan (£5,342) in addition to the sentence. Li pleaded guilty and did not appeal, he told reporters, however, the authorities did not reveal what the editor did to be charged with inciting separatism.
Gusa Publishing, where Li worked, has published books on topics that are usually censored in China. The company's website includes books on corruption and authoritarian rule in China and on the military's bloody 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protests that were centred on Beijing's Tiananmen Square.
Taiwanese authorities said last week that Li's detention was in order to "suppress Taiwan's publishing, academic and cultural industries and attempt to create a chilling effect", according to Taiwan's government-owned Central News Agency.
Gusa Publishing on Facebook said Li's colleagues were "angry and upset" and failed to understand why "just a publisher" would be charged with inciting separatism.
Li's sentencing comes at a time when Beijing has been aggressively pushing for a reunification with the self-governed island of Taiwan. The Chinese government claims Taiwan as its territory and says the island must come under its control, by force if necessary, at some point in the future.
"Li was arbitrarily detained, denied fair trial rights, and sentenced on dubious charges," said Sophie Richardson, co-executive director of Chinese Human Rights Defenders.
"Publishing books is not a crime, but Beijing sees open debate as a threat. The charges against Li should be dropped immediately and he should be released."
Yu Miao, the owner of a Chinese bookstore in Washington, DC, said it would have a negative impact on deciding which books to publish in the future.
"It shows it is not safe to publish books about China in Taiwan or anywhere else," said Mr Yu, who opened the Washington bookstore after his earlier bookstore in Shanghai was forced out in 2018.
In 2015, five Hong Kong-based booksellers were taken away by Chinese authorities, including a Swedish and a British national.
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