My readers and friends have asked me to comment about my settlement of my litigation with GSK. I’m afraid I cannot comment or disclose details except to say a confidential settlement has been reached, thus ending my litigation. Nor can I say anything which would be considered as ‘disparagement’.
Arbitrarily Imprisoned
But it seems like a good time to recap for my readers on the various other milestones in my campaign for exoneration after my wife and I were arbitrarily imprisoned on false charges of illegal information gathering in Shanghai in 2013-2015, and the professional activity I am now involved in.
I have been a ‘China lover’ for 47 years, I was a prominent member of China’s foreign business community, and I have been recognised for my pioneering work in the due diligence and anti-fraud sector there when some flattered me with the title ‘dean of the due diligence community’.
I was also deeply involved in philanthropic work in underprivileged communities through my leadership role in Rotary, helping to fund such causes as rural literacy, autistic education and child medical care such as life-saving heart surgery for infants.
Chinese regime
But the Chinese regime’s abuse of my family has forced me to become an activist and an advocate for justice and human rights, when all I ever wanted to be was a ‘China lover’.
My wife Ying, our young son Harvey, and I have suffered enormously at the hands of members of the Chinese regime from this traumatic ordeal, and I have had to battle cancer and PTSD as a result of our mistreatment and abuse in its jails.
But this is not just about us. I would remind everybody that of all the millions of prisoners in China’s jails and camps today, there is not a single one who has ever undergone a fair and transparent trial. Today I am working for them as well as for my family and myself.
Legal abuses
To that end, I filed a detailed confidential complaint report to the Chinese government in Beijing about the legal abuses against us, which they have chosen so far to ignore. But that will change one day.
I have filed unprecedented complaints against Chinese state TV channels CGTN and CCTV in the UK over their illegal airing of our forced false confessions while in captivity (July 2013-June 2015) and under duress. Their licence to broadcast in the UK was stripped a year ago, taking them off air as a result of this action.
Similar CGTN and CCTV channel broadcasting licences are now under threat in America, Canada and Europe.
Forced prison labour
I have exposed the practices of forced prison labour among the thousands of foreign prisoners in China, not to mention the millions of Chinese prisoners, none of whom have ever undergone fair trials and who are abused every day in violation of international treaties signed by China such as UN conventions on torture and minimum standards of treatment for prisoners, and arbitrary detention.
I have advised on the production of many documentary films about imprisonment and injustice in China and have brought the ordeals of falsely imprisoned foreigners in China into the international media spotlight, in order to spread global awareness of this abuse.
Perceptions of China
I have helped to shift public perceptions of China over the past six years through lectures at universities and think tanks, media commentating, providing analysis, and through my activity on this very LI platform. Veils have been lifted, realities revealed, and opinions about China have shifted dramatically.
As an expert witness I have successfully testified at trial against the extradition of Chinese citizens back to China. I believe that nobody anywhere in the world should be extradited to China regardless whether they have committed a crime or not, because no charges are plausible, and they will not get a fair and transparent trial and humane treatment.
Mentor
By accident I have served as a pro bono mentor to families undergoing ordeals similar to ours, who have a loved-one locked up in China in arbitrary detention, several being on China’s death row or ailing from life-threatening illnesses in Chinese jails. I advise such families how to support their loved-ones, how to select lawyers and how to lobby governments and public media.
In 2017, in an assessment of our ordeal, a British judge declared it to be a case of arbitrary detention and ruled that I and my wife were never “involved in any form of criminal activity whatsoever” and that the actions of the Chinese authorities were politically motivated.
Such exonerations and victories as I have thus far obtained have provided a degree of assurance and relief and an affirmation of dignity but there is still much to fight for.
China Lover
Some senior officials from the prosecution, judiciary and police who were involved in our case are now themselves serving life sentences for corruption, which is highly indicative of the ‘quality’ of the people who victimised us. There are still more to bring down.
I fully intend to continue pursuing the wrongs committed by the Chinese judicial system and the corrupt Communist Party officials who persecuted us without any legal basis, simply abusing their power to serve their own ends. Why? Because justice must be served. And because I am a China Lover.
Peter Humphrey is a guest contributor to Universul.net who has spent 47 years as a China specialist. He spent two decades as a foreign correspondent with Reuters, including four years as Bucharest bureau chief from 1990 to 1994. He later spent 15 years as an anti-fraud consultant for multinational corporations in China. In 2013 he and his wife were arrested and arbitrarily imprisoned for two years on trumped-up charges of illegal information gathering while conducting an investigation for a client company.
