Wife Of Activist Barred From Leaving China Dies After 15 Years Apart
NDTV
Zhang Qing fled to the United States with the couple's children in 2009 after her husband Yang Maodong highlighted local corruption in a Chinese village and was imprisoned.
The wife of a repeatedly detained Chinese human rights lawyer died of cancer on Monday in the United States after her husband's pleas to be allowed to leave China and reunite with her went ignored, rights activists said.
Zhang Qing fled to the United States with the couple's children in 2009 after her husband Yang Maodong highlighted local corruption in a Chinese village and was imprisoned.
Zhang was diagnosed with late-stage colon cancer in January 2021 and died in hospital at the age of 55, the New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement Monday.
Yang had published an open letter to the Chinese government in January 2021 after learning of Zhang's diagnosis, begging authorities to "have empathy for ordinary people" and allow him to leave the country to visit his wife.