TAIPEI (Taiwan News) - Travel permit to enter China for the wife of detained human rights activist Lee Ming-che (李明哲) has been revoked by the Chinese authorities, Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) confirmed Monday.

Lee Ming-che, human rights activist and former worker for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), went missing on March 19 after crossing over from Macau into Guangdong Province.

His wife, Lee Ching-yu (李凈瑜), believed her husband had been detained in China, as a Taiwanese government source told, while Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office on March 29 confirmed the source to be true after more than a week of snubbing requests from Taiwan’s government for information, saying that Lee was being investigated for allegedly “engaged in activities endangering national security.”

Lee Ching-yu held a press conference on March 31 stating her decision to fly to China herself to seek release of her husband, and is set to depart for Beijing today, only found out earlier that her MTP (the Mainland Travel Permit of Taiwan Residents) has been revoked, as she was told by the Eva Airline, with which she had booked the Beijing flight.

In her latest public statement issued yesterday, Lee said she “will not accept blackmail from anyone,” after China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) stated that it has handed Lee hand-written letters from her husband through “a related party.”

She said the “broker” has asked her to “remain low profile and cooperative” so her husband will be released soon, but if she insists on flying to Beijing to make her appeals, a "news channel in Guangdong Province will immediately broadcast a video of Lee Ming-che confessing to his crime."

SEF Deputy Secretary-General and Spokeswoman Lee Li-chen (李麗珍) said earlier that a number of staff will still meet up with Lee Ching-yu at the airport as scheduled to discuss the matter.

SEF is a semi-official organization charged with the handling of Taiwan's relations with China in the absence of official ties.