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).
Photo copied by Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
The couple applied to visit a family member in Taiwan at the end of last month, but the person they intended to visit had returned to China in July, the agency said.
The Chinese nationals were aware they were contravening the rules when they applied for temporary entry permits based on visiting family members living in Taiwan, it said.
In a separate statement issued yesterday, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) denounced the couple, accusing them of “abusing” the immigration system.
Photo: Taipei Times
However, the MAC did not explain why government agencies had failed to detect any problems with the application when it was submitted.
The government would review future applications “more strictly,” it said.
The breach of the immigration rules only surfaced after they were accused of disrupting a pro-democracy event in Taipei’s Ximending (西門町) area organized by a group of Hong Kong residents on Tuesday evening.
The Oct. 1 Action Team said in a statement on Wednesday that its flag, which featured the protest slogan “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times,” had been thrown on the ground by one of the Chinese pair.
The slogan came to prominence during protests in Hong Kong in 2019 and has been banned in the territory under the Chinese Communist Party’s National Security Law.
“Today is China’s National Day, and I will not allow this kind of flag to be displayed here,” Yao said, according to video clips released by the Hong Kong group and Radio Free Asia, a US government-funded news service.
The video clips also show Yao engaged in an altercation with people at the event.
“Taiwan and Hong Kong are part of China,” Yao said in the video before a police officer led the couple away from the scene.
The MAC warned Chinese against making “statements harmful to Taiwan’s autonomous status” or otherwise engaging in “acts undermining the nation’s sovereignty” while in Taiwan, citing the Regulations Governing the Approval of Entry of People of the Mainland Area into the Taiwan Area.
Article 12 of the regulations stipulate that Chinese visiting Taiwan risk having their entry permits revoked if they “engage in inappropriate acts that breach the principle of equality and dignity.”
CHIPMAKING INVESTMENT: J.W. Kuo told legislators that Department of Investment Review approval would be needed were Washington to seek a TSMC board seat Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said he received information about a possible US government investment in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and an assessment of the possible effect on the firm requires further discussion. If the US were to invest in TSMC, the plan would need to be reviewed by the Department of Investment Review, Kuo told reporters ahead of a hearing of the legislature’s Economics Committee. Kuo’s remarks came after US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Tuesday said that the US government is looking into the federal government taking equity stakes in computer chip manufacturers that
NORTHERN STRIKE: Taiwanese military personnel have been training ‘in strategic and tactical battle operations’ in Michigan, a former US diplomat said More than 500 Taiwanese troops participated in this year’s Northern Strike military exercise held at Lake Michigan by the US, a Pentagon-run news outlet reported yesterday. The Michigan National Guard-sponsored drill involved 7,500 military personnel from 36 nations and territories around the world, the Stars and Stripes said. This year’s edition of Northern Strike, which concluded on Sunday, simulated a war in the Indo-Pacific region in a departure from its traditional European focus, it said. The change indicated a greater shift in the US armed forces’ attention to a potential conflict in Asia, it added. Citing a briefing by a Michigan National Guard senior
POWER PLANT POLL: The TPP said the number of ‘yes’ votes showed that the energy policy should be corrected, and the KMT said the result was a win for the people’s voice The government does not rule out advanced nuclear energy generation if it meets the government’s three prerequisites, President William Lai (賴清德) said last night after the number of votes in favor of restarting a nuclear power plant outnumbered the “no” votes in a referendum yesterday. The referendum failed to pass, despite getting more “yes” votes, as the Referendum Act (公民投票法) states that the vote would only pass if the votes in favor account for more than one-fourth of the total number of eligible voters and outnumber the opposing votes. Yesterday’s referendum question was: “Do you agree that the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant
ENHANCED SECURITY: A Japanese report said that the MOU is about the sharing of information on foreign nationals entering Japan from Taiwan in the event of an emergency The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday confirmed that Taiwan and Japan had signed an agreement to promote information exchanges and cooperation on border management, although it did not disclose more details on the pact. Ministry spokesman Hsiao Kuang-wei (蕭光偉) said the ministry is happy to see that the two nations continue to enhance cooperation on immigration control, in particular because Taiwan and Japan “share a deep friendship and frequent people-to-people exchanges.” “Last year, more than 7.32 million visits were made between the two countries, making it even more crucial for both sides to work closer on immigration and border control,” he said. Hsiao