Yuan Hongbing (袁紅冰), a Chinese democracy activist living in exile in Australia, yesterday warned Taiwanese to beware of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “two-faced” approach to diplomacy.
Yuan made the remarks at a press conference in Taipei after 15 Chinese academics were blocked from leaving the country to take part in a conference on the development of liberalism in China, despite calls for more cross-strait cultural and intellectual exchange by the Chinese leadership.
The five-day conference, organized by Yuan’s Chinese Liberal Culture Movement, National Taiwan University’s Graduate Institute of National Development, National Chengchi University’s Graduate Institute of Development Studies and numerous other non-governmental organizations in Taiwan, will be held in Taipei starting next Friday.
PHOTO: WANG MIN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
The 15 academics were reportedly harassed and threatened by Chinese police and state security officials days after receiving their entry permits from the Taiwanese government.
In an e-mail to Yuan, which he displayed at the press conference, one of the academics said police officers had threatened they would have to “face the consequences” if they insisted on attending.
“I’m sorry, but the Ministry of State Security just advised me not to take part [in the conference] and said I would be stopped anyway if I insisted on going and get everybody in trouble,” another academic wrote in an e-mail.
Yuan did not reveal the identity of the academics, for their own security.
“This is just another example of how the CCP regime deprives the Chinese people of their fundamental rights — it’s up to the authorities to decide whether Chinese citizens can attend an international conference,” Yuan said. “It also shows that the CCP’s call for more cross-strait cultural exchanges is fake — it only allows exchanges that will give the CCP a hand in its attempt to take over Taiwan.”
Yuan said he wanted to remind all Taiwanese that the CCP regime is “a group of criminals who have committed crimes against humanity, the biggest group of corrupted officials in human history and a political mafia that rips the most fundamental rights off the Chinese people and practices state terrorism to the extreme.”
“If politicians in Taiwan do not have a clear understanding of the CCP, the democracy of the Republic of China and the future of Taiwanese may one day be in great danger,” he said.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
RSS