The government should amend the law to assist people in Hong Kong ahead of China’s passage of a national security bill that would affect the territory, researchers at Academia Sinica said yesterday.
If Taiwan were to “help Hong Kong, it would help itself,” Academia Sinica research fellow Lin Thung-hong (林宗弘) said, adding that the government should rewrite Article 18 of the Act Governing Relations with Hong Kong and Macau (香港澳門關係條例) to make explicit what action the nation would take.
“Necessary assistance shall be provided to Hong Kong or Macau residents whose safety and liberty are immediately threatened for political reasons,” the article says, although it does not specify what type of assistance.
Photo: Reuters
China on Thursday last week announced at its National People’s Congress that it would introduce legislation to ban “treason, secession, sedition and subversion” in the territory.
New legislation in Hong Kong is normally debated and passed by the Hong Kong Legislative Council.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Sunday wrote on Facebook that Beijing was “seriously threatening Hong Kong’s future” by bypassing normal avenues to introduce the bill.
“If this [national security] law is implemented, Hong Kong’s core values, its democratic freedom and its independent judiciary will be seriously eroded,” Tsai wrote, adding that the promise that Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy would be unchanged for 50 years was “on the verge of bankruptcy.”
Taiwan, like all democratic nations, stands with the people of Hong Kong and would provide “necessary assistance on the foundation of existing” institutions, she wrote.
Academia Sinica research fellow Wu Chieh-min (吳介民) said that although Tsai had clearly expressed the position of her administration, it must show its sincerity by drafting legislation that implements Article 18.
The government has done some things to help Hong Kongers, but it needs a political mechanism to clearly lay out what it can do, Wu said.
“Hong Kong is on the front line in the fight against the authoritarian Chinese Communist Party. If Hong Kong is swallowed up, then Taiwan becomes the front line,” Lin said.
Hong Kongers seeking residency in Taiwan are required to undergo a check for a criminal record, but protesters there are being charged, Lin said, adding that a mechanism was needed to rule out whether residency applicants with criminal records were victims of political persecution.
Laws are also needed to prevent Chinese capital from entering Taiwan through Hong Kong, where businesses are being bought by Chinese investors, he said, adding that “united front” entities have invested in Taiwan via Hong Kong.
Separately yesterday, Tamkang University professor of political science Alexander Huang (黃介正) said that from a constitutional perspective, “Hong Kong is not outside the scope of the Republic of China’s sovereignty.”
“Rather than sympathizing [with Hong Kongers], the government should look at ways it can continue the special relationship it has with the Hong Kong government under the Constitution,” he said.
Additional reporting by Lu Yi-hsuan
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