'Taiwan Activist Denied Right To Speak Freely'

The wife of a Taiwanese democracy activist jailed on the mainland said on Wednesday he is denied "basic correspondence rights" after visiting him in prison for the first time in a case that has strained cross-strait relations.

NGO worker Lee Ming-cheh was sentenced to five years in prison in November on charges of subverting state power by a court in central Hunan province.

Lee was arrested in March 2017 during a trip to the mainland and held incommunicado for months. Taipei has called his jailing "unacceptable" and a serious blow to relations with Beijing, while his wife Lee Ching-yu has said his trial was a "political show".

Lee Ching-yu was allowed to visit her husband in Chishan prison in Hunan on Tuesday, when they spoke for 30 minutes through a glass window.

"Lee Ming-cheh's health... in prison seems fine from his appearance... But it's very obvious he is still denied right of speech and basic correspondence rights," she told reporters at the airport near Taipei after returning from the mainland.

"He still cannot write letters to me. Even though the reason he gave is that he has very busy work hours in prison," she said, adding that Lee only received two of the 11 books she sent him.

"Every word they (prisoners) speak, even their voice and expression, will be recorded in writing by the prison."

During his trial, Lee admitted the charges, stating that he had written and distributed online articles that criticised Chinese Communist Party and promoted democracy. (AFP)