The Hong Kong government on Friday issued a statement calling on Taiwan to refrain from interfering in the territory’s internal affairs.
The statement, delivered by a government spokesman at a press conference, was apparently issued in response to comments by Mainland Affairs Council spokesperson Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正), who said the council would be closely following Hong Kong politics to see whether the legislative seats of Sixtus “Baggio” Leung (梁頌恆) and Yau Wai-ching (游蕙禎) would be declared invalid.
Leung and Yau refused to state the oath correctly — in essence refusing to pledge allegiance to the People’s Republic of China — at their inauguration as legislators, and the secretary-general of the Hong Kong Legislative Council refused to accept their oaths.
Photo: CNA
Leung and Yau’s action is seen as being part of a pro-Hong Kong independence stance.
The Hong Kong government spokesperson on Friday said that “since the [Hong Kong’s] return [to China], the Special Administrative Region (SAR) of Hong Kong has been given great autonomy under the Basic Law, fully embodying the success of the ‘one country, two systems’ approach.”
Leung and Yau were in Taipei yesterday to speak at National Taiwan University about Hong Kong’s localization movement.
Yau said the main reason for her visit to Taiwan was because she was invited to deliver the speech and there were no plans to meet with politicians.
Yau said she would be willing to interact with political parties in the future, adding that her visit has “gone smoothly.”
Leung and Yau were joined at the university event by Hong Kong Indigenous spokesperson Ray Wong (黃台仰), who spoke about his experience with the independence movements in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Meanwhile, former Hong Kong Legislative Council president Rita Fan (范徐麗泰) said in a radio interview in Hong Kong yesterday that the Taiwanese government’s statements lately have been an apparent challenge to the Hong Kong government.
“Are Hong Kongers willing to be used?” she said, an apparent reference to Leung and Yau’s visit.
In an editorial, the Mingpao said that Beijing would regard intervention by Taipei in Leung and Yau’s inauguration incident as a precursor to pro-Taiwanese independence and pro-Hong Kong independence groups working together.
“Should Hong Kong become one of the bargaining chips in the ongoing gambit of cross-strait affairs, Hong Kong will face inestimable challenges while further complicating its own affairs,” the Chinese-language newspaper said.
PREPAREDNESS: Given the difficulty of importing ammunition during wartime, the Ministry of National Defense said it would prioritize ‘coproduction’ partnerships A newly formed unit of the Marine Corps tasked with land-based security operations has recently replaced its aging, domestically produced rifles with more advanced, US-made M4A1 rifles, a source said yesterday. The unnamed source familiar with the matter said the First Security Battalion of the Marine Corps’ Air Defense and Base Guard Group has replaced its older T65K2 rifles, which have been in service since the late 1980s, with the newly received M4A1s. The source did not say exactly when the upgrade took place or how many M4A1s were issued to the battalion. The confirmation came after Chinese-language media reported
The Taiwanese passport ranked 33rd in a global listing of passports by convenience this month, rising three places from last month’s ranking, but matching its position in January last year. The Henley Passport Index, an international ranking of passports by the number of designations its holder can travel to without a visa, showed that the Taiwan passport enables holders to travel to 139 countries and territories without a visa. Singapore’s passport was ranked the most powerful with visa-free access to 192 destinations out of 227, according to the index published on Tuesday by UK-based migration investment consultancy firm Henley and Partners. Japan’s and
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday said that a delegation that visited China for an APEC meeting did not receive any kind of treatment that downgraded Taiwan’s sovereignty. Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun (孫儉元) said that he and a group of ministry officials visited Shenzhen, China, to attend the APEC Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting last month. The trip went “smoothly and safely” for all Taiwanese delegates, as the Chinese side arranged the trip in accordance with long-standing practices, Sun said at the ministry’s weekly briefing. The Taiwanese group did not encounter any political suppression, he said. Sun made the remarks when
BROAD AGREEMENT: The two are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff to 15% and a commitment for TSMC to build five more fabs, a ‘New York Times’ report said Taiwan and the US have reached a broad consensus on a trade deal, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said yesterday, after a report said that Washington is set to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent. The New York Times on Monday reported that the two nations are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent and commit Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to building at least five more facilities in the US. “The agreement, which has been under negotiation for months, is being legally scrubbed and could be announced this month,” the paper said,
RSS