For the first time, a Chinese employee working for a Western diplomatic representation was arrested in September 2021 for a reason not falling under ordinary law.
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This is an unprecedented affair. In September 2021, a Chinese employee of the European Union delegation in Beijing was arrested. For eight months, he has been in prison. Reason for incarceration: “arouse quarrels and cause disorders”, a crime liable to five years in prison.
Born in December 1971, An Dong was employed in the IT department of the European delegation. Worried about his disappearance after his arrest, on September 11, his employer finally learned that he was imprisoned thousands of kilometers from Beijing, Sichuan, a province of the west of the country in which he has no link.
Wanting to know the precise reasons for this incarceration, the European delegation ended up writing in October a first “verbal note” at the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In this letter that Le Monde was able to consult, the delegation “is concerned about the detention of [his] local employee and even more of the failure of the authorities concerned to explain the reason for his detention”. She requests that the European Affairs Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs inquiry and informed yours. She also claims that An Dong can have access to a lawyer of his choice and not to a lawyer committed of office.
Not receiving any response, the delegation sent a second verbal note at the end of November, firmer to demand that “Mr. An Dong is immediately released unless there is sufficient evidence, credible and admissible that he committed an internationally recognized crime [as such] “. A request which has not followed up, just like the third verbal note sent in February 2022 and which takes up the formulation already used.
Within the delegation, An Dong did not hide his Christian convictions. He happened to be expressed on Facebook. Nothing that justifies, however, incarceration.
Chinese pressure staff
It seems that it is the first time that a Chinese employee of a Western diplomatic representation has been arrested for something other than ordinary law. This precedent may increase pressure on this category of personnel. Chinese embassies auxiliaries, international organizations but also foreign media sign an employment contract with their foreign employer but also with a Chinese administration dependent on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Personal Beijing Service Corporation for Diplomatic Mission. Until 2021, their recruitment by the employer was to be simply registered by this organization. Since then, it must be approved and the procedure may take several months. Employees are paid by this organization, which receives the money paid by the foreign employer (and takes a commission in passing).
It is of public notoriety that these Chinese employees are regularly called upon to “account” to the authorities. We can fear that by stopping one of them in a diplomatic mission, the Chinese authorities seek to frighten their colleagues. In December 2020, Haze Fan, a Chinese woman working for the Bloomberg news agency, had been arrested at his home for “national security damage”. We haven’t heard from her since that day.