Hong Kong's top official is facing a new dilemma over whether to allow a US scholar facing deportation from China to return to his teaching career in the territory, observers said yesterday.
With the international spotlight already on Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa (
Li was convicted on Saturday by a Beijing court on charges of spying for Taiwan and ordered to be deported from the country.
Li is expected to leave China on Thursday, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said yesterday.
Li is not being allowed contact with his lawyer or family members at present but once he is deported he is expected to be allowed to return to Hong Kong, the report said.
The Chinese-born US academic, who has a doctorate from Princeton University, was teaching business at the City University of Hong Kong and conducting research in China up until his arrest.
He was detained without explanation on Feb. 25 in the city of Shenzhen.
"Li is at the mercy of the chief executive," said Law Yuk-kai, director of Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor.
He stressed Hong Kong's immigration authorities have the discretion to bar anyone who is deemed to be a threat to national security.
Hong Kong in the past has barred exiled Chinese dissidents from entering the territory.
But Li would be allowed to return if "the chief executive wants to show the world that Hong Kong has its judicial independence," Law said.
Under the "one country, two systems" model governing the return of the former British colony to Chinese rule in 1997, Hong Kong was granted 50 years of autonomy.
Law said he believed there was no problem for Li to return under the policy.
"We don't believe he was engaged in espionage works as there was no evidence," said Law, adding Li should be given "the benefit of the doubt" and allowed to resume his teaching post.
"It is a hard decision for Mr Tung and also a test of his political wisdom," Democrat lawmaker James To told reporters.
"My guess is that there will be no problem for him to return to Hong Kong to continue his work" under the one country, two systems policy, said political commentator Joseph Cheng.
"I think Hong Kong will be happy to receive him and I expect the school will too," Cheng said.
Chinese sources in Hong Kong said it was also up to the university to decide whether to hire a professor convicted of spying on China.
The question of whether Li would be allowed to return to Hong Kong or not has complicated matters and delayed his deportation, with the Chinese government in talks with Hong Kong officials about how to resolve the question, the Information Center noted.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)