By Jerome A. Cohen
Here is a good analysis of the latest PRC detention of a Japanese national, Why Did China Detain a Japanese History Professor?. The Japanese history professor, Iwatani Nobu, was invited to Beijing by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences for a conference and was then detained for allegedly possessing “illicit material,” which appears to have been old books and journals that he had purchased at a second-hand bookstore in Beijing. He was eventually released in November 2019.
It reminds me of the case of Song Yongyi, the Dickinson College librarian and Cultural Revolution expert, who was detained early in this century in China for collecting “state secrets” that were actually wall posters from the Cultural Revolution that had been publicly posted in China three decades earlier. I served as pro bono counsel in Song's case. Huge American pressure, especially from the academic community, finally led to his freedom after six months of incommunicado secret police detention but before prosecution.
In the Iwatani case, it would be important to interview him about the details of his detention. He cannot have “pleaded guilty,” as the report says, since he was apparently never brought to court. It is not clear what he allegedly “confessed” to. What were the “Illicit activities” – buying old books in a public book store? What form of detention did he receive? Apparently, he was allowed brief consular visits every month or so but what was he permitted to discuss with the consul? I think an earlier report suggested that he never saw a defense lawyer. Was he indicted? Is he, although released, free to be interviewed or does he feel obligated to adhere to a commitment to post-release silence extracted as part of the release bargain? Has the Japanese Government admonished him to keep silent? Did the GOJ assure the PRC that Iwatani would keep quiet for the first year? These questions come up in the many similar cases involving foreign nationals’ detention in the PRC.