The Presidential Office yesterday said that the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) and other government agencies are doing all they can to win the release of Lee Ming-che (李明哲), a human rights and democracy advocate detained in China.
Lee, a former Democratic Progressive Party worker and now a staff member at Wenshan Community College in Taipei, went missing after entering China via Macau on Sunday last week, a trip he took to help arrange medical treatment for his mother-in-law.
Lee is a “clear thinking” staff member with an interest in democracy and human rights issues, college president Cheng Hsiu-chuan (鄭秀娟) said.
Photo courtesy of Lee Ming-che’s family
Cheng said that Lee often shared information online with friends in China about Taiwan’s transition to democracy.
Lee’s wife, Lee Ching-yu (李淨瑜), yesterday said that she had been informed by Chinese security authorities late on Monday night that her husband had been detained.
In a brief statement issued to the media, she said she was worried that her husband might not have enough money with him to obtain food or medicine for his high blood pressure.
Photo: CNA
“I have asked the Straits Exchange Foundation to forward medicine and money to him,” she said.
She urged China to let her know what charges her husband is facing and to allow her and other family members to visit him.
Asked if the Presidential Office had any new information on Lee Ming-che’s whereabouts, spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) said: “The information we should have, we have had all along.”
The council is tasked with helping to secure Lee Ming-che’s release, Huang said.
“The fact that Lee Ming-che has gone missing once again raises serious questions about the safety of people working with civil society in China,” Amnesty International East Asia director Nicholas Bequelin said on Friday.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2