On the eve of the 15th anniversary of Hong Kong’s 1997 handover to China, Democratic Progressive Party Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) urged Taiwanese to be vigilant of the development of bilateral relations between Hong Kong and China, which he said have turned from economic dependence to social conflict.
“With the bond between Hong Kong and China growing stronger, the [Beijing’s pledge] of ‘Hong Kong administering Hong Kong’ has became nothing but empty words. Hong Kong’s relations with China have gone from being highly economic dependent to social collision, then to making political concessions. Those are the lessons people in Taiwan as well as the government must be aware of,” Su said on his Facebook page yesterday.
The structural changes and economic outlook of the Hong Kong special administrative region still remain critical issues that need to be closely watched by the international community, he added.
To mark the anniversary, Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) arrived in Hong Kong for a three-day visit on Friday, but the supposedly celebratory visit has been met with crowds of indignant protesters and turned into a security issue, he said.
Another issue of great concern lies in whether universal values such as democracy, freedom and human rights have been rightfully and truly exercised in Hong Kong under the mode of “one country, two systems,” Su said.
“Former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平) promised to keep Hong Kong unchanged for 50 years after unification, a once lofty promise that has became nothing but whispery sounds falling into the bottomless black hole of history. The words scoff at the [political] reality of Hong Kong,” Su said.
The ties between Hong Kong and China have become closer than ever over the past 15 years, but with greater economic dependence comes a stronger reliance and with deeper social exchange comes more clashes, he said.
“Although we are at a point in time when Taiwan can no longer avoid bilateral exchanges with China, the public should be vigilant and learn from the lessons Hong Kong has taught us from deepening its economic, social and political ties with Beijing,” Su said.
Translated by Stacy Hsu, staff writer
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
RSS