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.”
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