Hong Kong democracy campaigner Joshua Wong (黃之鋒), who arrived in Taiwan in the wee hours of Jan. 7 along with three pro-localization Hong Kong lawmakers, yesterday said it was “very strange” that protesters acquired the group’s flight and hotel information.
Hong Kong lawmakers Edward Yiu (姚松炎), Nathan Law (羅冠聰) and Eddie Chu (朱凱迪), and Wong, who is secretary-general of Demosisto, a Hong Kong center-left pro-democracy party established last year, were invited by the New Power Party (NPP) to attend two political forums over the weekend. They were confronted by more than 100 pro-unification protesters on their arrival at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport after midnight.
Demonstrators, some of whom were masked, shouted at them to leave Taiwan. A few protesters ran toward the Hong Kong politicians and attempted to attack them.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
The three Hong Kong lawmakers and Wong, along with NPP legislators and young democracy advocates, participated in a forum yesterday.
Several protesters held banners outside the venue that described the legislators as “pro-Hong Kong independence” and telling them to “go back to Hong Kong.”
“We had protesters outside our hotel last night and this morning. It is really very strange how pro-Beijing protesters knew which hotel we were staying in and which flight we took,” Wong said. “It is very normal for lawmakers elected by the public to meet and communicate in democratic societies.”
“In the future, we hope democratic movement advocates from Hong Kong and members of Taiwan’s civic society can have more chances to meet, because as we deal with China and various forms of suppression, we can exchange experiences,” he said.
NPP Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said he was grateful to the police for maintaining security at the airport, the group’s hotel and the forum’s venue, adding that he hopes the government investigates whether certain organizations are “controlling” the protesters.
Young people around the world are worried about their futures, so new lawmakers in Hong Kong and Taiwan were elected after major social movements, because the public hopes new faces can take office to effect changes in institutions previously controlled by political elites, Chu said at the forum.
A judicial review of the appointments of Yiu and Law is under way, with the Hong Kong government claiming that their oaths at a swearing-in ceremony of the Hong Kong Legislative Council in October last year were invalid.
Chu said he is also facing a lawsuit, and if the government uses such means to disqualify councilors, it would lose the public would lose faith in elections, adding that the three would run for office again if they are disqualified.
After China’s Taiwan Affairs Office branded the meeting between Hong Kong and Taiwanese lawmakers as collusion between pro-Taiwan independence and pro-Hong Kong independence forces, NPP Legislator Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) said he hopes Beijing stops describing the event as a conspiracy.
“The forum for dialogue between Hong Kong and Taiwanese lawmakers is a normal meeting, and because the NPP is banned from going to Hong Kong, we invited friends from Hong Kong to Taiwan,” he said.
Taiwanese are coming closer to a consensus about the future of the nation, and how to achieve reforms will be important in the next stage of the nation’s evolution, Hsu said, adding that Taiwan has already moved on from a debate over independence and unification to questions of parity and justice.
Both Taiwan and Hong Kong face Chinese suppression, but Taiwan is luckier because it has acquired self-determination, and the majority of Taiwanese have formed an identity and recognize Taiwan, Huang said.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
RSS