The legislature’s Internal Administration Committee yesterday passed amendments to the Act Governing Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) concerning the detention of Chinese citizens to bring the legislation in line with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ratified by the government in 2009.
The Council of Grand Justices’ Interpretation No. 710, announced in 2013, called for improvements to Article 18 of the act regulating the forced deportation and detention of Chinese citizens, to guarantee their rights to legal procedures and personal freedom.
The amendments reviewed and passed by the committee include making it clear that the enforcing authority is the Ministry of the Interior’s National Immigration Agency (rather than “police authorities”) granting those who are to be deported an opportunity to make their claims, and convening a review meeting for claims made by those whose permission for residence or for registered permanent residence has been revoked or repealed, as stipulated in the Immigration Act (出入國及移民法).
Other changes include scrapping the regulation stating that those placed in temporary detention can also be ordered to perform labor services, and specifying that Chinese citizens can be held in custody for no longer than 150 days, or 100 days for Hong Kong and Macau residents
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Yu Mei-nu (尤美女) challenged the revision proposed by the Executive Yuan on granting those to be deported an opportunity to submit claims, but limiting the application to only those who entered Taiwan “with permission.”
“There are Chinese people who might have left China and come here because of political reasons and [without the required documents to enter Taiwan legally],” Yu said, demanding that the restrictions be deleted — to which the officials conformed.
DPP Legislator Pasuya Yao (姚文智) questioned Mainland Affairs Council Minister Andrew Hsia (夏立言) on whether the Chinese government has made similar progress on regulations to protect Taiwanese detained in China.
Hsia said the Chinese authorities have always “claimed” to follow the law in this regard.
“There is the Cross-Strait Bilateral Investment Protection and Promotion Agreement, which stipulates that the family of a detained Taiwanese [businessperson] should be notified by the Chinese authorities within 24 hours,” Hsia said, acknowledging that this does not apply to all Taiwanese in China.
Yao urged Hsia to bring the matter up during his meeting with China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Minister Zhang Zhijun (張志軍), which is scheduled to take place in Kinmen at the end of the month.
DPP Legislator Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) and People First Party Legislator Chen Yi-chieh (陳怡潔) said the government should also protest against Beijing’s new draft national security law that includes Taiwan as part of its “sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Emphasizing that the Republic of China is a sovereign country, Hsia said the council has already issued a statement denouncing any unilateral attempt to alter the “status quo.”
Pressed by Lee, Hsia said the council would raise concerns about the Chinese law at the meeting.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
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