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Veteran held in India for 54 years allowed to return

Wang Qi in the early 1960s and today. [Photo/China Daily]

After being held in India for 54 years, Chinese veteran Wang Qi was ready to make his long-awaited trip back home on Saturday.

According to the Chinese embassy in India, 77-year-old Wang had left his home in central India’s Madhya Pradesh and arrived in New Delhi on Friday afternoon.

He was eager to return to hometown in Shaanxi province and would start the journey as early as Saturday, said the embassy.

In 1963, Wang, a Chinese army surveyor, got lost, crossed the border and was captured by Indian authorities. He was moved from one jail to another for nearly seven years

When he was finally released in 1969, police escorted him to the remote village of Tirodi in Madhya Pradesh and told him to start a life there. He married a local woman, and they had three children and grandchildren.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said on Monday that China had been “pushing India” to complete procedures to return the veteran. In 2013, the Chinese embassy in India issued him a 10-year Chinese passport and a living allowance every year since then, Lu said.

Vikas Swarup, the Indian External Affairs Ministry’s spokesman, said on Thursday, “The ministry is helping Wang and his family members－including his son Vishnu Wang, daughter Anita Wankhede, daughter-in-law Neha Wang and grandson Khanak Wang－to visit China to meet his extended family.”

“We are working with the Chinese embassy in Delhi and the Indian embassy in Beijing to ensure that all formalities are completed and arrangements are in place,” he said.

A China Central Television report on Friday said that Wang is eager to taste noodles, a local specialty in Shaanxi, after arriving home.

Wang’s plight was highlighted last month in a special report by the BBC.

On Feb 4, Luo Zhaohui, China’s ambassador to India, spoke by telephone with Wang and expressed sympathy over his suffering over the years. Yan Xiaoce, a counselor at the Chinese embassy in India, visited Wang’s village on the same day, according to the embassy.

Liu Shurong, another Chinese veteran, underwent the same plight as Wang and lives in the same village. But Liu said he had no intention to return to China because he no longer has family there, the embassy said.

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East Asia • •

I welcome today’s announcement that the stress and worry that this inquiry has caused to service personnel and veterans will soon be brought to an end- Griffith

Nia Griffith MP, Labour’s Shadow Defence Secretary, commenting on the decision to close down The Iraq Historic Allegations Team, said:

“I welcome today’s announcement that the stress and worry that this inquiry has caused to service personnel and veterans will soon be brought to an end.

“I completely condemn the spurious and untrue allegations that have been levelled against service members and veterans. Labour has long said that anyone facing investigation should be properly supported by the Government. 

“It is now important that the inquiry’s work is completed promptly and properly in order to eliminate any risk of these vexatious claims arising again in future.”

Ends

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Labour • • •

Government must show caution and concern about the way the Saudi campaign is being conducted – Thornberry

Emily Thornberry, Shadow Foreign Secretary, responding to today’s revelations regarding arms exports to Saudi Arabia, said:

“We have discovered today that, even after the bombing of the funeral hall in Sana’a and the concerns of Liam Fox’s department about the risk that British weapons were being used in breach of International Humanitarian Law, Boris Johnson gave his personal reassurance that the Saudi-led coalition was improving its targeting processes and ensuring that any incidents where non-military targets had been bombed were being properly investigated.

“According to the independent Yemen Data Project, in the 55 days between Boris Johnson writing his letter and the end of 2016, Saudi forces bombed 60 residential sites in Yemen, including houses, markets and refugee camps. At this time of heightening humanitarian crisis, they bombed 46 sites of economic infrastructure, including farms, water tanks and food trucks, and 48 sites of physical infrastructure, including roads, bridges and ports. They also managed to bomb three schools and a university. Not a single one of these 160 incidents has yet been investigated by the Saudi authorities. If this is what Boris Johnson calls the Saudis ‘improving processes and…taking action to address failures’, then I would sorely hate to see the opposite.

“It should not be left to the courts to rule whether the export licences for these arms sales should have been granted. It should be for this Government to show some long-overdue caution and concern about the way the Saudi campaign is being conducted, the devastating humanitarian crisis that campaign is helping to cause, and the blatant failure to ensure any proper, independent investigation of these alleged crimes against international law.”

Ends

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Labour • • •

Green pressure sees Government finally publish shelved employment status law review

10 February 2017

* Greens condemn Department for Business, Innovation and Skills for not publishing employment status law review for more than a year

* Jonathan Bartley, Green co-leader: “As Tory ministers sat on the review’s findings workers everywhere have been left to fend for themselves”

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has finally published a review into employment status law [1] which was launched and then shelved under the Coalition Government.

The publication, more than two years after the review’s launch in October 2014, and more than 13 months after the report was seemingly ready for publication in December 2015, came after repeated calls from Green co-leader Jonathan Bartley for the Government to stop “sitting on the findings” [2].

The report’s belated publication coincides with a court ruling today (February 10) which found a plumber working on a self-employed contract is in fact entitled to the rights of a worker [3].

Bartley wrote an open letter to the Prime Minister in October last year [2] calling for the review to be published after a similar ruling found two Uber drivers were not self-employed but entitled to workers’ rights.

Bartley said:

“It is shameful that Tory ministers have sat on the findings of the Coalition’s review into employment status. As they did so workers everywhere have been living in increasing insecurity and left to fend for themselves.

“Without legislation which adequately safeguards their rights these workers have been badly let down and it is clear this review should have been published at the earliest opportunity – in 2015.

“More and more court rulings are showing what can be achieved when people take control and stand up against exploitation and demonstrating how woefully insufficient our employment status law it is for dealing with modern employment practices.

“It is welcome that these issues are now being addressed by the ongoing review led by Matthew Taylor of the RSA, but the substantial and important findings of the report just published should have been put in the public domain long before now, so as to inform debate and help formulate ideas for law reform.”

Notes:

  1. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/585383/employment-status-review-2015.pdf
  2. https://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/2016/10/28/green-party-open-letter-to-theresa-may-landmark-uber-ruling-means-government-must-reveal-findings-of-shelved-employment-status-law-review/
  3. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38931211

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Green Party • • •