Human rights campaigners yesterday called for amendments to the Act Governing Relations with Hong Kong and Macau (香港澳門關係條例) to facilitate asylum applications from there.
The call was made at a news conference in support of yesterday’s protests in Hong Kong, which marked the anniversary of the territory’s return to Chinese control.
“Taiwan should act as an ark for human rights as the people of Hong Kong and China face persecution,” Taiwan Association for China Human Rights chairman Yang Hsien-hung (楊憲宏) said, praising the passage of amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) in the Legislative Yuan’s Internal Administration Committee on Monday.
The news conference was attended by lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the New Power Party.
Yang said the amendments will ease asylum applications for Chinese facing persecution by removing the requirements that they hold official Chinese papers and enter Taiwan legally.
However, amendments to the Act Governing Relations with Hong Kong and Macau are needed to allow for similar asylum conditions to applicants from the two territories, he said, urging the swift passage of proposed amendments sponsored by DPP legislators Yu Mei-nu (尤美女) and Wellington Koo (顧立雄).
Koo said that while the act contains provisions requiring the government to provide “necessary help” to residents of Hong Kong and Macau whose safety and freedom are threatened for political reasons, new provisions are necessary to improve their residency rights.
Hong Kong bookseller Lam Wing-kei (林榮基) has said he would choose Taiwan if he is eventually forced to seek political asylum.
Minister of the Interior Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊榮) last month said that a new legal mechanism would be needed to process an application from Lam if he sought to enter Taiwan for reasons other than tourism.
“Our hearts are with the people of Hong Kong today, because we face a similar threat; we also fear that our freedoms will be violated or stripped away,” Taiwan Citizen Media Cultural Association executive director Sylvia Feng (馮賢賢) said. “Our government should not drop its hands when dealing with people from China, Hong Kong or Macau who face political persecution because we are afraid of Chinese pressure. Maintaining the ‘status quo’ does not mean maintaining a ‘status quo’ in which freedoms face ever greater restrictions.”
“What has happened in Hong Kong could also end up happening here,” said Chris Su (蘇南洲), director of the Christian Arts Press, which prints Christian literature for the underground market in China, adding that an associate had been temporarily detained at a Chinese airport for his firm’s publication of “anti-revolutionary materials” regarding Hong Kong’s social movement, while a Hong Kong publisher was given a 10-year sentence for publishing a book by a banned author his firm also carries.
“I have published 10 books by that author. Does that mean I deserve a 100-year sentence?” he said.
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) is to begin his one-year alternative military service tomorrow amid ongoing legal issues, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. Wang, who last month was released on bail of NT$150,000 (US$4,561) as he faces charges of allegedly attempting to evade military service and forging documents, has been ordered to report to Taipei Railway Station at 9am tomorrow, the Alternative Military Service Training and Management Center said. The 33-year-old would join about 1,300 other conscripts in the 263rd cohort of general alternative service for training at the Chenggong Ling camp in Taichung, a center official told reporters. Wang would first
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
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