The Executive Yuan yesterday condemned Hong Kong for arresting five democracy advocates, including singer-actress Denise Ho (何韻詩), cardinal Joseph Zen (陳日君) and former opposition lawmaker Mageret Ng (吳靄儀).
Officers of the Hong Kong Police Forces’ National Security Department the previous day had arrested the group — who were all trustees of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund — on charges of seditious conspiracy under the territory’s National Security Law.
The arrests came three days after Beijing-backed veteran law-enforcement official John Lee (李家超) became the Hong Kong chief executive following an election in which he ran as the sole candidate.
Photo: Sam Yeh, AFP
The five were released on bail early yesterday morning.
“Taiwan joins the international community in condemning the violation of human rights and regression of the Hong Kong Government,” Executive Yuan spokesman Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) said.
“This government condemns the violation of human rights committed by Hong Kong under the pretext of national security,” Lo said. “Hong Kong is called upon to represent the people, and to stop its contravention of rights and freedoms.”
Photo: Lee Hsin-fang, Taipei Times
Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) also condemned the actions of the Hong Kong government and called for an end to the persecution of dissidents.
Hong Kong authorities are to blame for “implementing the regressive Hong Kong National Security Law, causing declines in the human rights, freedom, democracy and rule of law there,” Chiu said.
“We call on the parties responsible for the situation to recognize that they have gone down the wrong road and must return to the right one,” he said. “If they compound their errors, they will become coconspirators and accessories to this crime.”
Despite promises that freedom of speech would be protected, the passage of the Hong Kong National Security Law has led to the jailing of critics including Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai (黎智英) and closures of independent media firms, Chiu said.
“The world can clearly see in these cases that the authorities are conducting a new literary inquisition in Hong Kong, which is cut from the same cloth as the oppressive regime of the Chinese Communist Party,” he said.
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian
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