The Taipei District Court on Wednesday turned down appeals to lift travel bans imposed on Hong Kong businessman Lam Yuk (林旭) and Chinese national Su Jianfeng (蘇劍鋒), who prosecutors said are suspected of working for the head of a Chinese spy ring in Taiwan.
Taipei prosecutors said that Lam and Su were working for Xiang Xin (向心) and his wife, Kung Ching (龔青), in a case related to self-confessed Chinese spy William Wang Liqiang (王立強), and all four were placed under travel restrictions as part of an ongoing investigation into the case.
Lam’s and Su’s lawyers said that as the two have no connections to Xiang and have not breached the National Security Act (國家安全法), the travel restrictions imposed on Feb. 11 should be lifted.
Prosecutors on Wednesday said that Lam is a Hong Kong resident who has entered and exited Taiwan numerous times, making him a flight risk.
Su is also a fight risk, they said, adding that the travel restrictions should remain in place.
Lam said that as a business owner and head of a business association in Hong Kong, his company would incur massive losses and he would lose his position in the association if he is unable to return to Hong Kong.
Su said he has several businesses in China, which have sustained losses because of his long absence.
The two reiterated that they had not engaged in any national security related matters in Taiwan.
Taiwanese authorities are still investigating the allegations by Wang, who in November last year defected and sought political asylum in Australia.
Wang said he worked for China Innovation Investment Ltd, of which Xiang is the executive director and Kung an acting director.
Wang told Australian media that the firm is a shell company “whose founding mission was to infiltrate Hong Kong, but was later tasked with influencing elections in Taiwan.”
He said that Xiang is in reality a Chinese spy who oversees espionage activities, intelligence gathering and other covert operations in Taiwan.
Following Wang’s assertions, Taiwanese authorities on Nov. 24 stopped Xiang and Kung ahead of their flight to Hong Kong and took them in for questioning.
They subsequently placed Lam and Su under investigation as well.
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
RSS