A “panopticon” in which everybody treats everybody else with distrust is quickly forming in China, after Beijing in March implemented a new set of regulations governing Internet users and content, an article by National Cheng Kung University professor of political science Hung Chin-fu (洪敬富) said.
The guidelines, which seek to reassert the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) control over the nation, encourage people to report any online comment that could erode the CCP’s rule — for instance, comments that contravene the party’s fundamental beliefs and those that could undermine social security, Hung wrote in an article published in the latest issue of the Mainland Affairs Council’s overview of developments on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
The guidelines also encourage Internet users to disseminate content created by the CCP, which are designed to spread the CCP’s ideology and justify its grip on territories, the article said.
They further undercut the already limited freedom of speech on the Internet granted Chinese and include rules on when, what and how content produced by the party is to be broadcast online, it said.
This type of content is always catered toward the CCP and sometimes Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) himself, it said.
It shows Beijing’s concerns over an increasingly liberal and democratized Internet, which has the power of linking large numbers of people instantaneously, Hung wrote.
In other news, the Chinese-language Ta Kung Pao yesterday reported that it had received information about two main “escape routes” Hong Kong activists have used to flee to Taiwan since pro-democracy protests began in the territory in June last year.
The report lists three locations in the territory — Sai Kung Town, Aberdeen and Shau Kei Wan — where Hong Kongers are picked up by boats and taken to the Taiwan Strait, where they board another boat and are dropped off either in Hsinchu or Chiayi county, or Taichung, Tainan or Kaohsiung.
Alternatively, they are driven to Xiamen before being taken out to sea and landing in Hsinchu County, the report said.
Hong Kongers entering Taiwan in this way enlist the help of fishers, whose starting price is HK$300,000 (US$38,704) and could cost more than HK$500,000 for celebrities, it said.
Fishing boats are less prone to attract the attention of Taiwanese law enforcement, while yachts have a 80 percent chance of being inspected, the report cited fishers with knowledge of the matter as saying.
Since China’s National People’s Congress passed a resolution to introduce national security legislation for the territory, Taiwanese authorities have stepped up inspections, and some Hong Kongers have been unable to enter the country even after three attempts, it said.
When asked for a comment, the National Immigration Agency cited a response it issued in December last year, saying that it had not received reports of stowaways from Hong Kong, but that it would keep close tabs on the situation.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
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TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
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