China’s Taiwan Affairs Office yesterday confirmed that Tsai Chin-shu (蔡金樹), chairman of the Southern Taiwan Union of Cross-strait Relations Associations, was “investigated” by Chinese authorities in July last year for allegedly engaging in activity that “endangers national security.”
Tsai’s family members were notified by authorities, office spokesman Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光) said at a news conference in Beijing.
Media reports that contact with him had been lost were fabricated, Ma said, adding that the authorities handled the case with strict adherence to the law and guaranteed Tsai’s legal rights.
Screen grab from Facebook
The confirmation came after Shih Chien University chair professor Chiang Min-chin (江岷欽) on Sept. 12 said on a political talk show that Tsai had been taken into custody for “national security reasons” about half a year ago.
Tsai is an avid supporter of the pan-blue camp, but was still “locked up,” Chiang said.
The Straits Exchange Foundation on Sept. 13 said that Tsai’s family members in August last year told the foundation that they had lost contact with Tsai after he checked out of a hotel room in Xiamen, China, on July 21 last year, a day after he had traveled to Quanzhou to attend the Cross-Strait Food Fair.
The foundation immediately sent a letter to China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits requesting help in finding Tsai, but it said that it has yet to receive a “concrete response.”
Other unnamed sources said that Tsai was allegedly taken away by Chinese national security personnel on July 22 last year while making a connecting flight in Xiamen.
The most important task right now is to ensure Tsai’s safety, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Kolas Yotaka said yesterday.
Tsai’s safety is what his family members care most about, she said.
Tsai has “been missing” for some time, and the authorities have made the case a priority, she said.
“The Chinese government is mostly just politics and no rule of law,” she said.
Beijing’s claim that Tsai broke the law is “unconvincing” to Tsai’s family and the public, she said.
Officials have been instructed to gain an understanding of the situation as quickly as possible, she said, adding that the government’s determination to keep the public safe has not changed.
Tsai, 60, holds a master’s degree from National Sun Yat-sen University’s Institute of Political Science and a doctoral degree in regional economics from Xiamen University’s Graduate Institute for Taiwan Studies.
He is also the chairman of the Kaohsiung City Cross-Strait Relations Studies Association.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
RSS