Taiwan yesterday urged China to provide information on the whereabouts of a Taiwanese activist who went missing after joining pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong this month.
Morrison Lee (李孟居) traveled to Hong Kong for a vacation on Aug. 18 and attended one of the anti-extradition bill protests, Fangliao Township (枋寮) Mayor Archer Chen (陳亞麟) told Bloomberg News.
Lee serves as an unpaid adviser to the Pingtung County township, Chen said.
Photo: Chung Li-hua, Taipei Times
Lee was scheduled to travel to Shenzhen, China, for business two days later.
Lee’s family said that they have not heard from him since he entered China, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Deputy Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) told a news briefing in Taipei yesterday.
Taiwan has asked Chinese and Hong Kong authorities to help look for Lee, but the Chinese authorities have not responded, Chiu said earlier in the day.
Beijing is required by bilateral agreements to inform Taipei if a Taiwanese is detained in China, but the government had not received any communication so far, he said.
Travelers to Hong Kong should keep a close eye on local reports regarding demonstrations and try to avoid protest areas, the council said, adding that it has posted a chart of planned protests in the territory on its Web site, which would be continuously updated.
It also warned that travelers going from Hong Kong into mainland China could face more stringent security and luggage checks by Chinese customs officers, as media reports have said that officers are demanding to see the contents of cellphones and laptops.
The council’s branch office in Hong Kong has established a task force to provide round-the-clock service, and any citizen encountering problems in Hong Kong — or their immediate relatives — should call the emergency number 852-6143-9012, the council said.
Citizens in China requiring assistance or their relatives should contact the Straits Exchange Foundation at its 24-hour emergency line (02) 2533-9995, it added.
Separately, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said that the government would receive visiting Hong Kongers without contravening the Act Governing Hong Kong and Macau Affairs (香港澳門關係條例).
The government continues to support the territory’s residents in their pursuit of democracy and freedom, but it would not intervene in the matter, Ou said in a statement, reiterating comments she made at a news conference on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the Tourism Bureau has told all authorities that maintaining travelers’ rights is a priority when handling any disputes with travel agencies regarding refunds due to cancelations of tours or travel plans as a result of the Hong Kong protests.
Additional reporting by Chung Li-hua, Lin Chia-nan and staff writer Jake Chung
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
A global survey showed that 60 percent of Taiwanese had attained higher education, second only to Canada, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan easily surpassed the global average of 43 percent and ranked ahead of major economies, including Japan, South Korea and the US, data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for 2024 showed. Taiwan has a high literacy rate, data released by the ministry showed. As of the end of last year, Taiwan had 20.617 million people aged 15 or older, accounting for 88.5 percent of the total population, with a literacy rate of 99.4 percent, the data
CCP ‘PAWN’? Beijing could use the KMT chairwoman’s visit to signal to the world that many people in Taiwan support the ‘one China’ principle, an academic said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday arrived in China for a “peace” mission and potential meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), while a Taiwanese minister detailed the number of Chinese warships currently deployed around the nation. Cheng is visiting at a time of increased Chinese military pressure on Taiwan, as the opposition-dominated Legislative Yuan stalls a government plan for US$40 billion in extra defense spending. Speaking to reporters before going to the airport, Cheng said she was going on a “historic journey for peace,” but added that some people felt uneasy about her trip. “If you truly love Taiwan,
NEW LOW: The council in 2024 based predictions on a pessimistic estimate for the nation’s total fertility rate of 0.84, but last year that rate was 0.69, 17 percent lower An expected National Development Council (NDC) report expects the nation’s population to drop below 12 million by 2065, with the old-age dependency ratio to top 100 percent sooner than 2070, sources said yesterday. The council is slated to release its latest population projections in August, using an ultra-low fertility model, the sources said. The previous report projected that Taiwan’s population would fall to 14.37 million by 2070, but based on a new estimate of the total fertility rate (TFR) — the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime — the population is expected to reach 12 million by
RSS