The entry into the nation by pro-unification Chinese academic Li Yi (李毅) to attend a forum hosted by the Chinese Unity Promotion Party was illegal, the Mainland Affairs Council and the National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday, revoking his visa and ordering his deportation.
As of press time last night, the NIA’s Taichung office was working to ascertain Li’s whereabouts.
Li was invited to speak on “maintaining the prospects of peaceful unification” at the forum, which is to follow a demonstration scheduled for tomorrow in Taichung, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Kolas Yotaka said.
Photo: Copy by Chang Jui-chen, Taipei Times
Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) had instructed both agencies to look into the matter, citing national security concerns, she said.
The NIA and the council decided to revoke Li’s visa, citing a breach of Article 16 of the Regulations Governing the Approval of People of the Mainland Area Visiting Taiwan for Purposes of Tourism (大陸地區人民來台從事觀光活動許可辦法), Kolas said.
Li applied to enter the nation for sightseeing as a US resident, the agencies said, adding that he posed a “potential threat to national security.”
Photo: Li Hsin-fang, Taipei Times
Regarding tomorrow’s planned demonstration, Kolas said that as the Taichung City Government had already approved it, it would fall under the city’s jurisdiction.
Author Joyce Yen (顏擇雅) said in a statement on Facebook that the party calling Li a “visiting sociology academic from the US” was an attempt at obfuscation.
While Li obtained his doctoral degree in the US, he does not hold a teaching position at any US university, Yen said.
Li is most often cited by the media as a researcher at Beijing’s Renmin University of China, she said.
Contrary to the stated topic for his talk at the forum, Li is a known supporter of unification through armed invasion, she added.
Yen called for a review of the nation’s legal system to determine how Li was allowed to “spread his views” in Taiwan, especially after he in 2016 said that China should send 25 million “new immigrants” to Taiwan to solve the “Taiwanese independence problem.”
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