Exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer has been invited to speak in New Zealand next week and the government will decide within days whether to issue her a visa, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said yesterday. Taiwanese officials last month banned Kadeer, who Beijing accuses of leading a separatist terrorist movement, from visiting and China objected to her visit to Australia in August.
Key said he was not aware of any request from the Chinese government to prevent the visit.
New Zealand’s Green Party foreign affairs spokesman Keith Locke said he would host Kadeer from next Monday to Thursday, when she would speak at two public meetings and meet legislators.
“She advocates non-violent change and disassociates herself from violent change,” he said. “I think there would be quite an outcry from New Zealanders if she wasn’t given a visa.”
Beijing calls Kadeer’s World Uyghur Congress a terrorist movement and accuses the group of directing July’s unrest in Urumqi, which left at least 197 people dead.
Key told a news conference that Immigration Minister Jonathan Coleman would decide whether to grant a visa allowing her to talk to two public meetings within the next few days.
Beijing objected when Kadeer, who has lived in exile in the US since being freed from a Chinese prison in 2005, visited Australia in August, but Locke told the New Zealand Herald he did not envisage any problems in her being allowed into New Zealand.
“It is wrong to allow the Chinese, or any government, to tell us who we can or cannot let speak in our country,” he said.
Also See: Blocking Kadeer violates liberalism
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
Authorities have detained three former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TMSC, 台積電) employees on suspicion of compromising classified technology used in making 2-nanometer chips, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. Prosecutors are holding a former TSMC engineer surnamed Chen (陳) and two recently sacked TSMC engineers, including one person surnamed Wu (吳) in detention with restricted communication, following an investigation launched on July 25, a statement said. The announcement came a day after Nikkei Asia reported on the technology theft in an exclusive story, saying TSMC had fired two workers for contravening data rules on advanced chipmaking technology. Two-nanometer wafers are the most
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
Taiwanese exports to the US are to be subject to a 20 percent tariff starting on Thursday next week, according to an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump yesterday. The 20 percent levy was the same as the tariffs imposed on Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh by Trump. It was higher than the tariffs imposed on Japan, South Korea and the EU (15 percent), as well as those on the Philippines (19 percent). A Taiwan official with knowledge of the matter said it is a "phased" tariff rate, and negotiations would continue. "Once negotiations conclude, Taiwan will obtain a better
RSS