China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) yesterday confirmed that 44-year-old Hsinchu native Morrison Lee (李孟居), who had not been heard from since crossing from Hong Kong to China’s Shenzhen late last month, is under investigation on suspicion of engaging in criminal activity harmful to national security, as the Presidential Office and the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) demanded that Beijing give a full account of his detention.
TAO spokesman Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光) told a briefing in Beijing that Lee was being investigated “in accordance with the law,” without giving further details.
Lee went missing on Aug. 20 after he sent photographs of Chinese paramilitary police amassing on the border between Shenzhen and Hong Kong to Fangliao Township (枋寮) Mayor Archer Chen (陳亞麟), who has said that he tried to call Lee later in the day, but could not get through.
Photo courtesy of the Taiwan United Nations Alliance
Lee is an unpaid adviser to the township in Pingtung County and also serves on the board of the Taiwan United Nations Alliance. He had traveled to Hong Kong on Aug. 18 and headed to Shenzhen two days later on a business trip.
Chen last month said that Lee had attended an anti-extradition bill protest while in Hong Kong.
His family said that they had not heard from him since he arrived in Shenzhen.
Photo: Chung Li-hua, Taipei Times
Presidential Office spokesman Chang Chun-han (張惇涵) told a news conference in Taipei yesterday that the government is deeply concerned about Lee’s detention and has asked the MAC and other government agencies to negotiate with Beijing over the issue.
MAC spokesman Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) called on Beijing to say, in accordance with the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement (海峽兩岸共同打擊犯罪及司法互助協議), where Lee is being held, and why and when he was detained.
The pact requires Beijing to inform Taipei if a Taiwanese is detained in China.
China should arrange for his family and a lawyer to visit as soon as possible to “ensure the legal rights he is entitled to,” Chiu said.
The council would stay in contact with his family and provide whatever assistance it could, he said.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) called on China to provide more details of the charges against Lee.
DPP Legislator Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) compared Morrison Lee’s case with that of Lee Ming-che (李明哲), who was detained by Chinese authorities in March 2017 and imprisoned that November after being convicted of “subversion of state power.”
He is concerned that China fabricated the charges against Morrison Lee, and said that China’s violation of free speech rights was pushing it farther away from Taiwan, Lee Chun-yi said.
China should release Morrison Lee, the lawmaker said.
KMT caucus whip William Tseng (曾銘宗) called on Chinese authorities to be transparent in their handling of Morrison Lee’s case and allow him to hire a lawyer and allow his family visitation rights.
EXTRADITION DEAL? A former prosecutor said that the US Department of Justice might ask Taiwan to extradite the men in return for the US doing something in return The US won arrest warrants for three Taiwanese men — a former president of China-based Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co (福建晉華) and two engineers — charged with stealing secrets from Idaho-based Micron Technology Inc. The effort to apprehend the three men — former Fujian Jinhua president Stephen Chen (陳正坤), and Ho Chien-ting (何建廷) and Wang Yong-ming (王永銘), who work for Taiwan-based United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) — is notable because they were charged in 2018 in the first case filed under the “China initiative” of US President Donald Trump’s administration targeting trade-secret theft, hacking and economic espionage. However, legal experts have said
There was a net reduction last year in the number of Taipei residents and this year is expected to set a 23-year high for population decline in the city, Ministry of the Interior statistics released yesterday showed. From January to last month, 18,861 more people moved out of Taipei than moved into the capital, an increase of 7,000 from the same period last year, the data showed. That is a 7.2 percent decrease in the city’s population since the start of the year, the biggest drop in both percentage and total number among all municipalities and counties nationwide, the data showed. The data
COUNCILS CLASH: The Mainland Affairs Council said a new office in Hong Kong is to assist people with issues related to investment, study and employment in Taiwan The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday denied an accusation by the Hong Kong-Taiwan Economic and Cultural Co-operation and Promotion Council that its Taiwanese counterpart in the territory was “interfering with Hong Kong’s internal affairs.” The Hong Kong council leveled the accusation after Taipei’s Taiwan-Hong Kong Economic and Cultural Co-operation Council this month announced it would establish a Taiwan-Hong Kong Services and Exchanges Office to facilitate humanitarian aid for Hong Kongers. The new office is scheduled to begin operations on Wednesday. The MAC yesterday asked the Hong Kong council to “not misinterpret” the government’s intentions. The two Taiwan-Hong Kong councils were established in 2010 to
IRRESPONSIBLE ATTITUDES? Some experts say the NHI system does not do enough to educate the public, or pay doctors to talk to patients, about healthy lifestyles While the life expectancy of Taiwanese newborns in 2018 reached 80.69 years, the number of years people spent in poor health hit a record high at 8.41 years, Ministry of Health and Welfare statistics showed on Saturday. Healthy life expectancy is calculated by a person’s life expectancy minus the time they spend in ill health, such as the loss of mobility, disabilities and chronic disease, based on medical records and calculations about the years they live with disabilities. The number of years that Taiwanese spend in poor health is increasing slowly, but steadily, rising by 0.46 years, or five-and-a-half months, between 2012
RSS