Chinese rights lawyer incommunicado after writing to Li Keqiang over travel ban

A prominent Chinese rights attorney is missing, believed detained, after he planned to attend an event linked to Human Rights Day at the EU representative office in Beijing on Dec. 10, RFA has learned. Tang Jitian has been incommunicado since texting friends a couple of hours before the event was due to start that it was "not safe" to attend, U.S.-based legal scholar Teng Biao said. Repeated calls to Tang's phone rang unanswered on Dec. 16.

"I think it's definitely more serious," Teng said. "We have heard nothing from Tang Jitian since Dec. 10, so it looks like an enforced disappearance."

He said the situation of Chinese dissident and former legal advocate Guo Feixiong, also known as Yang Maodong, appeared to be similar. Guo has been incommunicado since writing an open letter to Chinese premier Li Keqiang, asking him to lift a travel ban and allow him to visit his critically ill wife Zhang Qing in the United States, Teng said.

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