New Power Party (NPP) legislators and a coalition of civic groups yesterday urged the government to cancel the special legal status granted to Hong Kong officials and investors with Chinese ties amid growing concerns over a Hong Kong extradition bill.
The bill, proposed by the Hong Kong Government to allow extradition to any jurisdiction including mainland China, is a Chinese Communist Party attempt to “Sinicize” the territory and use it as a gateway to infiltrate other nations, the NPP legislative caucus said in a joint statement.
If passed, anyone passing through Hong Kong could be sent to the mainland for trial and subject to China’s notoriously opaque judicial system, it said.
Photo courtesy of Ho Wing-tung
With the bill expected to pass a second reading at the Hong Kong Legislative Council today, the administration of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) should openly oppose the legislation, provide reports on its possible effects on Taiwan and propose the necessary responses, the statement said.
Specifically, the reports and proposed responses should consider the legislation’s effect on Taiwanese visiting Hong Kong, Taiwan’s relations with the territory and how it could be used to promote unification across the Taiwan Strait, it said.
The government should also consider adjusting the special status granted to Hong Kong, and extend cross-strait restrictions and review mechanisms related to Hong Kong officials and investors with strong ties to China, it said.
Furthermore, the government should work to refine guidelines on offering political asylum to protect people from Hong Kong and other parts of China fleeing political persecution, it said.
As the Hong Kong Government appears determined to railroad through the bill, Tsai should immediately hold a news conference to oppose the bill, NPP caucus whip Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) wrote on Facebook.
“Do not let Hong Kong’s freedom get the death penalty,” he added.
The Taiwan Citizen Front, the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, the New School for Democracy, the Judicial Reform Foundation and other civic groups also issued a statement urging the government to plan its responses to the extradition law and adjust Hong Kong’s special legal status.
Hong Kong has been given special treatment in terms of lower tariffs, less investment restrictions and other privileges based on the supposition that it is different from China, being a relatively autonomous region that adheres to the rule of law, Taiwan Citizen Front founder Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) said.
However, if the bill passes, it would call into question that supposition, requiring the government to rethink whether to continue applying the special treatment, he said.
“Taiwan and other nations should express to China that if it deprives Hong Kong of its autonomy, there would be no reason for us to treat the territory differently than other parts of China,” he said.
Separately, Hong Kong students in Taiwan have announced plans to walk out of classes today and rally outside the Hong Kong Economic, Trade and Cultural Office in Taipei in support of strikes in Hong Kong to oppose the extradition bill.
Organizers of the walkout said that they expect more than 300 students to join the rally.
According to the Ministry of Education, there are 7,691 Hong Kongers studying in Taiwan, 1,617 of them first-year students at universities and colleges.
Additional reporting by Wu Po-hsuan
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS