President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hope that Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) would step forward to lead cross-party legislators in supporting Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋), whom China is investigating for promoting “Taiwanese independence.”
China’s state-run Xinhua news agency late last month reported that Shen is being probed by the Chongqing Municipal Public Security Bureau on allegations of “secession-related” criminal activities, including launching the civil defense organization Kuma Academy.
The investigation is being carried out under China’s criminal law and a set of Beijing’s judicial guidelines on how to penalize “Taiwanese independence separatists,” the Xinhua report said.
Photo: CNA
Beijing has no legal authority to charge any Taiwanese for engaging in legal activities in their own nation, Lai said.
Shen has every right to champion the nation’s sovereignty and democratic constitutional order under Taiwanese law, he added.
Lai said he hoped Han would make a statement in support of free speech, which is broadly supported across Taiwan’s political spectrum.
China should conduct itself in a manner befitting a great power instead of issuing inappropriate calls for transnational searches for democracy advocates living outside its borders, he added.
The legislature has shamed itself before the world in failing to pass any resolution to protect its own lawmaker or denounce China’s threats, Taiwanese democracy advocate Lee Ming-che (李明哲) said.
Beijing’s branding of lawmakers of foreign governments as wanted criminals is tantamount to a military act of aggression, he said.
Shen on Sunday said that China is too enchanted with its salami slicing tactics to act on its threats with any urgency, adding that he is not worried about his safety.
“China aims to use psychological warfare to scare people like me from doing their jobs, such as carrying out legislative diplomacy,” he said.
Additional reporting by Chen Yun, Hsieh Chun-lin and Chen Yu-fu
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