More Taiwanese traveling to China, Hong Kong or Macau have been detained or faced trials since Beijing implemented the Anti-Espionage Law and Law on Guarding State Secrets, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday.
Since July last year, 15 Taiwanese have been detained or undergone trials after entering China and the two special administrative regions, while 51 have been interrogated by border officers, Tsai said, adding that the number of cases is increasing.
“We respect the Mainland Affairs Council’s decision to raise the travel alert for China from ‘yellow’ to ‘orange,’ meaning that people should avoid non-essential travel. Other countries have also raised the travel alert for China, which shows that it has become an issue that the international community is monitoring closely,” Tsai said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
Taiwanese in certain professions are likely to be listed as national security risks, such as those who work at national security and intelligence agencies, have participated in activities organized by civic groups critical of China or work in the high-tech sector, he said.
Two Taiwanese travelers — followers of a certain religious practices — are still being detained in China for allegedly contravening Chinese criminal laws, he said.
The China Coast Guard has also increased the frequency of patrols in the Taiwan Strait, as well as at the East and South China seas, including sending coast guard ships to patrol waters near Japan and the South China Sea, Tsai said.
“We have noticed that Chinese coast guards and other agencies have operated more frequently in the ‘gray area’ between Taiwan and China than before,” he said. “As the government increases patrols of our territorial waters, we will fully defend and protect our fishers’ rights to work in international waters.”
Taiwanese fishers should also be on high alert when accessing sensitive waters and abide by maritime laws in other countries, Tsai said, adding that they should quickly notify the government if their boats and crewmembers are threatened with inspections or seizure by Chinese coast guards.
Chinese coast guards on Tuesday last week boarded and seized Taiwanese fishing boat Da Jin Man No. 88 (大進滿88號) for allegedly contravening no-fishing season regulations. Its crewmembers have yet to be released.
Prior to the meeting, reporters asked Tsai about the Chinese research ship Jia Geng’s entry into the waters off Taiwan’s east coast on Sunday.
Tsai said the ship did not cast any undersea equipment when navigating near the east coast.
The ship was mainly there to gather hydrological data, he said, adding that the bureau would closely monitor the whereabouts of Chinese vessels navigating near Taiwan.
Meanwhile, government agencies should be ready to clarify disinformation on Chinese social media platforms Douyin (抖音) and Xiaohongshu (小紅書), given their large user base in Taiwan, Tsai said.
“The bureau’s position is to instantly gather disinformation and inform government agencies in charge of relevant issues to quickly provide clarification. The goal is to avoid publicly disseminating disinformation,” he said.
If the source of questionable content was found to be in Taiwan, the bureau would turn the case over to the Ministry of Justice, he said.
However, “should we track the source of the content to other countries, we would share the information with Taiwan-friendly nations,” he added.
As Douyin has more than 5 million active users, people should beware of cybersecurity issues as well, he said.
Tsai added that the Investigation Bureau and prosecutors were investigating whether a correspondent from China’s Xinhua news agency oversaw and directed the production of a Taiwanese political talk show while she was stationed in Taiwan.
It could be a major national security breach, compromising freedom of speech in Taiwan, Tsai 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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