Hong Kong youth participant in the Great Translation Movement, Tan Yuankang, is currently being held in an immigration prison in California, USA for nearly four months. Members of the Great Translation Movement, including Alan Zhang and democracy activists, have launched a petition to the US Congress in an open letter, calling for refuge to be provided for participants of the movement who are detained in immigration prisons.
The Great Translation Movement began in early 2022, with most members being post-2000s generation. Participants of the Great Translation Movement translate extreme nationalist, pro-Russian, anti-Western, and anti-Japanese rhetoric from official and social media in mainland China into English, Japanese, and other languages, exposing them through self-media worldwide, causing the Chinese Communist Party to become angry. Since mid-2022, many participants of the Great Translation Movement in mainland China have been arrested or gone missing.
Subsequently, Tan Yuankang left Hong Kong at the end of March this year, flew to the United States, and applied for political asylum at the airport immigration. After questioning, he was sent to an immigration prison in Los Angeles. He has been in the California immigration prison for four months.
On July 29, he told Radio Free Asia why he came to the United States: “I saw that Article 23 was about to be passed and felt that their oppression would escalate, afraid of the kind of punishment under Article 23. Article 23 carries a life imprisonment, and the previous national security laws did not have such a thing. So, I came here in fear of that consequence.”
He also said, “The conditions here are definitely better than in Hong Kong’s prison.” He spends his days “sleeping, eating, watching movies, watching TV, using a tablet to browse the news,” but “the mental pressure is relatively high, unavoidable.”
Los Angeles democracy activists and lawyer Zheng Cunzhu’s law firm is handling Tan Yuankang’s case. According to Zheng Cunzhu, Tan Yuankang has attended a pre-trial hearing and will participate in a personal scheduling hearing on September 16, when the judge will rule immediately, either in favor or against.
In response to this, members of the Great Translation Movement, Alan Zhang, 1989 Tiananmen Square protest leader Wang Dan, and Vice Chairman Jie Lijian of the Chinese Democratic Party Joint Headquarters have initiated an open letter to the US Congress. In the open letter, they expressed that Tan Yuankang, detained in an immigration prison, faces the danger of being repatriated to China, urging the US Congress to hold human rights hearings and provide necessary protection and refuge for participants of the Great Translation Movement detained in immigration prisons. They also call for strengthened international cooperation to urge the Chinese Communist authorities to stop suppressing the Great Translation Movement and to continue to monitor and support the movement.
The open letter has gathered signatures from hundreds of people from various sectors. “We are arranging to have it translated into English,” Wang Dan said. “We will at least deliver it to the US (Congress’s) Strategic Competition Committee with the CCP through my contacts.”
Additionally, on July 28, outside the Chinese consulate in Los Angeles, the Chinese Democratic Party Joint Headquarters held a rally in support of the Great Translation Movement, calling for US Congress to sanction the Chinese Communist Party.