Taiwanese professor Lin Cheng-cheng (林正成) returned to Taiwan on Sunday following his release after 11 years in a Chinese prison on charges of espionage and was reported by the Chinese-language United Daily News as saying that the Taiwanese government left him to fend for himself during his prison term.
The 58-year-old former dean of the Japanese language department at Tunghai University lamented his time in jail and wondered where the government was when he needed help.
Lin, a native of Pingtung County, was arrested by Chinese police on July 12, 1997, as he was traveling to Beijing to visit friends.
He was thrown in jail after a Chinese court found him guilty of espionage. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison, but was released after serving 11 years.
Lin's family said the Taiwanese government provided no help during his imprisonment. Lin's younger brother told local reporters that the Intelligence Bureau had cut all contact with the family after Lin was arrested and refused to offer any help to get him out of jail.
Mainland Council Affairs Deputy Chairman Liu Teh-hsun (
United Daily News quoted one of Lin's relatives as saying that Lin had agreed to spy for the then Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government in exchange for having his tuition paid for during his study in Japan in the 1980s.
In response, Chang Rong-kung (張榮恭), director of the KMT's Mainland Affairs Department, was quoted by the paper as saying that the KMT government had stopped spying on China in 1991 and denied the party had anything to do with Lin's work there.
SLOW-MOVING STORM: The typhoon has started moving north, but at a very slow pace, adding uncertainty to the extent of its impact on the nation Work and classes have been canceled across the nation today because of Typhoon Krathon, with residents in the south advised to brace for winds that could reach force 17 on the Beaufort scale as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) forecast that the storm would make landfall there. Force 17 wind with speeds of 56.1 to 61.2 meters per second, the highest number on the Beaufort scale, rarely occur and could cause serious damage. Krathon could be the second typhoon to land in southwestern Taiwan, following typhoon Elsie in 1996, CWA records showed. As of 8pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 180km
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RULES BROKEN: The MAC warned Chinese not to say anything that would be harmful to the autonomous status of Taiwan or undermine its sovereignty A Chinese couple accused of disrupting a pro-democracy event in Taipei organized by Hong Kong residents has been deported, the National Immigration Agency said in a statement yesterday afternoon. A Chinese man, surnamed Yao (姚), and his wife were escorted by immigration officials to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, where they boarded a flight to China before noon yesterday, the agency said. The agency said that it had annulled the couple’s entry permits, citing alleged contraventions of the Regulations Governing the Approval of Entry of People of the Mainland Area into the Taiwan Area (大陸地區人民進入台灣地區許可辦法). The couple applied to visit a family member in