Straits Exchange Foundation Secretary-General Shi Hwei-yow (許惠祐) said yesterday that China is interrogating hundreds of Taiwanese businesspeople based in "sensitive areas," including places near Chinese military bases.
China's interrogation and detention of the businesspeople before it obtained proper evidence of the men's alleged crimes were detrimental to the men's human rights, Shi said.
Shi, however, declined to confirm whether China's large-scale crackdown on the suspect Taiwanese intelligence-gathering operations in China had started after President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) unveiled the locations of China's 496 missiles pointing at Taiwan.
Noting that Taiwan understands that China's justice system is different from Taiwan's, Shi nonetheless said that the government here hoped China could follow democratic countries' judicial procedures in trying the Taiwanese businesspeople.
The government yesterday asked China to allow a team of Taiwanese lawyers to go to China to represent Taiwanese businesspeople Beijing arrested on charges of espionage.
The Mainland Affairs Council and the foundation expressed serious concerns over what they called China's manipulation of judicial procedures in trying the Taiwanese businesspeople it alleges are "spies."
The foundation sent a letter to its Chinese counterpart the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait yesterday protesting against Beijing's arrangement of media interviews on Friday with eight Taiwanese businesspeople detained on charges of espionage.
Condemning such interviews as damaging to the detainees' human rights, Yen Wan-ching (
Some of the detainees vented their anger at Chen and his government for doing nothing to rescue them following their arrests and said they regretted collecting intelligence for Taiwan.
However, according to MAC Vice Chairman Chen Ming-tong (
Suspecting that the Taiwanese businesspeople's testimonies during their media interviews were scripted by China, Chen Ming-tong said Beijing's treatment of these men reminded him of China's inhuman trials of prisoners in the 19th century. He did not say what trials he was referring to.
The cross-strait foundation has asked for the its Chinese counterparts help to allow a team of Taiwanese lawyers to accompany the Taiwanese businesspeople's families to China to participate in the judicial inquiries.
The departure date for the team of lawyers remained undecided, said the foundation, which has formed a task force to handle cases of the so-called "Taiwanese spies."
Eight restaurants in Taiwan yesterday secured a one-star rating from the Michelin Guide Taiwan for the first time, while three one-star restaurants from last year’s edition were promoted to two stars. Forty-three restaurants were awarded one star this year, including 34 in Taipei, five in Taichung and four in Kaohsiung. Hosu (好嶼), Chuan Ya (川雅), Sushi Kajin (鮨嘉仁), aMaze (心宴), La Vie by Thomas Buhner, Yuan Yi (元一) and Frassi in Taipei and Front House (方蒔) in Kaohsiung received a one-star rating for the first time. Hosu is known for innovative Taiwanese dishes, while Chuan Ya serves Sichuan cuisine and aMaze specializes
Taitung County is to launch charter flights to Malaysia at the end of this year, after setting up flights to Vietnam and Thailand, the Taitung County Government said yesterday. The new charter flight services, provided by low-cost carrier Batik Air Malaysia, would be part of five-day tour packages for visits to Taitung County or Malaysia. The Batik Air charter flight, with about 200 seats, would take Malaysian tourists to Taitung on Dec. 30 and then at 12:35pm return to Kuala Lumpur with Taiwanese tourists. Another charter flight would bring the Taiwanese home on Jan. 3 next year, arriving at 5:30pm, before taking the
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) plans to ease strained capacity during peak hours by introducing new fare rules restricting passengers traveling without reserved seats in 2026, company Chairman Shih Che (史哲) said Wednesday. THSRC needs to tackle its capacity issue because there have been several occasions where passengers holding tickets with reserved seats did not make it onto their train in stations packed with individuals traveling without a reserved seat, Shih told reporters in a joint interview in Taipei. Non-reserved seats allow travelers maximum flexibility, but it has led to issues relating to quality of service and safety concerns, especially during
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
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