Authorities in democratic Taiwan have refused entry to a Chinese dissident writer who called for public commemoration of the Tiananmen Square massacre, leaving her stranded in a third country with her family.
Deng Liting, who fled to Thailand with her family after being arrested and assaulted by police in the southwestern megacity of Chongqing in July, said she had hoped to claim political asylum in Taiwan, which has never been ruled by the Chinese Communist Party, nor formed part of the People's Republic of China.
But officials there turned her around and put her on another plane within less than 24 hours, citing the island's lack of a refugee law and fears of a wave of asylum-seekers from neighboring China, she told Radio Free Asia in an interview on Wednesday, but declined to reveal her current location for fear of being targeted for " long-arm" law enforcement by the Chinese state.
The Taiwan Immigration Agency confirmed to RFA that Deng, her husband and son had transited in Taiwan, but had left again without being allowed to pass through immigration.
"The Taiwanese staff told me that Taiwan doesn't have a refugee law, so they really couldn't grant me asylum," Deng said. "I told them I just wanted help getting in touch with a third country, any that was willing to take me in, but they said it wasn't their job to help me."
"They were very tough on that, and I couldn't say too much else, as it could have had bad consequences," she said. "They told me to leave, so I and my family left."
Deng said officials had told her that Taiwan is loath to grant any asylum claims, for fear of precipitating a huge wave of asylum-seekers from China, where many are joining the "run" movement of mass migration to foreign countries.
"There was no way it would happen," she said. "We were in Taiwan for less than 24 hours, which was pretty quick."
"I thought about it, but I didn't want to make it difficult for them," she said. "They told me that almost nobody in the past decade has been granted political asylum."
Fear of repatriation
Deng's refusal of entry comes after authorities in Taiwan sent three Chinese nationals back to Malaysia in February after they landed in Taipei seeking political refuge.
She has declined to share her current location for fear of being forcibly repatriated to China, where she would likely face arrest and a prison sentence linked to her social media post about commemorating the June 4, 1989, Tiananmen Square massacre, public mention of which is banned in China.
Deng's debut Chinese-language novel "The World of Lost Souls" was also criticized for being critical of China under the ruling Communist Party, she said.
"On June 3 this year, I posted a video supporting the [1989 Tiananmen protests] to my WeChat, Weibo and Douyin accounts," Deng said. "A lot of people reposted it, which led to my video account on WeChat and Douyin being blocked."
"On June 4, my son and I were arrested in Chongqing," she said. "The police interrogated, threatened, pushed, pulled and tore my clothes in front of my son, leaving him with serious psychological trauma."
Soon after the incident, Deng bought plane tickets for herself and her family and flew to Thailand, where she learned it could take up to four months to get recognition as a political refugee from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
So the family flew to Taiwan instead, in hope of being signposted to a third country for resettlement from there.
"Our family just wants to live a normal life where our human rights aren't violated, free from fear," Deng, who hails from the southwestern region of Guangxi and who uses the pen name Molu, posted to her X account on Aug. 20 after arriving at Taiwan's Taoyuan International Airport.
"Yet we were born in an authoritarian country, where we have lived in fear for half of our lives. We are still being hunted down, and are still on the run," she wrote.
Deng said police in Guangxi said her case was deemed "serious" and that she could be looking at a seven-year jail term. They also threatened to send her young son to prison alongside her.
'A very dangerous situation'
Deng said she is anxious and frightened, and has no idea where to go next.
"I hope there is a country that will accept us," she said. "I hope it will be soon, because we're actually in a very dangerous situation right now."
Tseng Chien-yuan, an adjunct professor at Taiwan's National Central University who has assisted Chinese dissidents with asylum, said the lack of a refugee law means that each asylum case is decided by officials based on political considerations, rather than its fundamental merits.
"The government should find a way to achieve a clearer rule of law via administrative orders or regulations," he said. "Otherwise, frontline immigration officials will be at a loss. They don't have the power to make decisions and must report to their superiors in Taipei."
"Airports are not normal places to decide on placement," Tseng said. "Time is needed to investigate and understand the individual's situation," he said, adding that asylum-seekers should at least be offered temporary food and shelter while their claims are processed."
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Roseanne Gerin.