This content was originally published by Radio Free Asia, and it is now licensed for reprint.
A Chinese rights activist who lately sought political asylum in Canada claims that the regulators torture her and others who criticize the ruling Chinese Communist Party under various circumstances.
Wei Yani told RFA in an appointment shortly after arriving in Vancouver that only those who have committed a crime should be imprisoned. ” We were n’t being detained and imprisoned because we had committed any crime, but because we fought for our rights and endangered the government’s vested interests”, Wei said.  ,
She described fainting after being forced to stand with her arms handcuffed much above her head on one occasion and said,” And when people like us are locked up, we have it worst of all, and are subjected to all kinds of torture.”
” They said they were going to leave me there for a week, but I only lasted just over an hour … so they had to take me down again”, Wei said, adding:” They have so many kinds of physical punishment”.
She said residents are fed bad meal, for which they pay 7 yuan ( about US$ 1 ) a day, and are only allowed to swim again in 15 weeks. They are also required to light up at any time during the day or night to answer sporadic “roll names,” and there is no defense from mosquito bites.
” Single incarceration is more of a mental punishment”, Wei said. They “lock you up there for 15 days and do n’t communicate with you at all.”
Sought hospital in Taiwan
Wei Yani was one of three Chinese nationals who emigrated to Thailand in November and sought social hospital there. The authorities then immediately returned them to Malaysia on February 1 because that is where their journey originated.
Their , abrupt departure from Taiwan , ignited conversation there about the government ‘ treatment of real immigrants in the presence of a refugee rules.
In response to growing calls for laws governing the treatment of migrants, Taiwan’s government has been a outspoken supporter of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong. However, the region’s report on providing a safe haven for rebels and migrants has been shaky.  ,
Wei and her son after received a call from international rights organizations and protesters who worked with Canadian and U.N. officers on their behalf, she told RFA Mandarin in an interview shortly after taking off from Vancouver on April 9.
” I am actually relieved to be here, where I can finally relax and live a good life”, Wei said. I no longer have to worry about being detained and imprisoned.
” Every day while I was in China, I felt that fear, the fear that they would punish me if they detained me,” she said.
Why are we tortured? Because they want to suppress us and make us afraid, so you wo n’t complain about them any more”, Wei said. ” That’s their main goal”.
Tribal majority
Wei, a part of the Zhuang racial minority from the southern region of Guangxi, was violently evicted from her residence in 2006 to make way for the US$ 4.2 billion Longtan Hydropower Station, the next- largest in China, straddling the Hongshui valley in Guangxi’s Tian’e state.
Local residents, however, accused local officials of embezzling their money by alleging that they never received the appropriate amount of compensation.
Wei began a complaint process to recover the money that had been lost for years and which resulted in her being put in jail on two occasions for “re-education through labor.”
Wei’s complaint to the central government, which brought her back to her hometown and charged her with “defamation” and “picking up disputes and stirring up trouble,” was brought back by police in Beijing at the beginning of 2014 after she continued to press her.
She , attempted suicide , while in detention, and her detention and subsequent trial prompted a campaign by more than 30, 000 local people for her release.
In 2021, Wei was  , detained by police , in the southwestern province of Yunnan on suspicion of” subversion”, as part of a crackdown on dissent in the southern province of Guangdong.  ,
She suggested that she might have been hoping to flee China by crossing the border into neighboring Myanmar when Zhang Lin’s home was located in the Xishuangbanna border area of Yunnan.
She was then subjected to “residential surveillance at a designated location,” but nothing more about the incident ever emerged.
Canadian concerns
Fu Ci, a rights activist from Canada, claimed that the authorities in Canada are becoming more and more concerned about the situation of human rights activists in China.
” In particular under Xi Jinping, the situation for human rights defenders is constantly deteriorating, and there is less and less room for them to exist”, he said.
Many people have no choice but to seek help from the international community so they can continue to live in the free world, Fu said. If the Canadian government did n’t lend a helping hand, people like that would be in great danger.
He urged the international community to show more compassion and concern for activists fleeing China.
Wei said she believes the Canadian authorities acted “purely out of humanitarianism”.
” My son and I will work hard to live a better life, to give back to Canada, and to help other Chinese people who are also suffering”, she said.
