Beijing’s is worsening cross-strait relations and creating fear by taking “political hostages,” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators said yesterday, referring to Chinese media reports that three Taiwanese men had been detained and confessed to being spies against China.
“Under China’s authoritarian regime, you can be arrested and prosecuted on whatever charges it wants to pin on you,” DPP Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said. “Chinese government officials need no evidence to convict people, all they need is to extract a confession out of you.”
The three men are “political hostages” in China’s “coercive diplomacy” against the exterior world — in this case, Taiwan, Wang added.
Photo: Wu Chun-feng, Taipei Times
China’s policy of arresting Taiwanese and other foreigners “is part of its ‘grand external propaganda’ machine to generate the impression that foreign forces are conspiring to subvert the Chinese government,” Wang said, adding that it is also to make Chinese fearful of having contact with Taiwan’s pluralistic culture.
Wang warned Taiwanese to assess the risk of investing in China or of taking trips to China, Hong Kong or Macau, saying that they could be arrested regardless of their party affiliation.
“China is a very dangerous place now, so people go there at their own risk,” Wang added.
Deputy Legislative Speaker Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) told a media briefing yesterday that the three men are unknown to him and other DPP officials, and that they do not work for the party.
“Chinese state media claim that Taiwanese spies were caught — these are fabricated reports, that we can tell from the details presented,” Tsai said. “It will only worsen cross-strait relations, pushing the two sides farther apart.”
The negative news would only make Taiwanese angry and hostile toward China, he said, adding that people would think that Beijing is presenting false evidence to pin everything on Taiwan and the DPP.
“It will also bring fear to Taiwan’s business community,” he said.
Recounting how afraid a Taiwanese with investments in China was during the reports about the detainees, Tsai said that his friend is pro-China and even cheers: “Long live the Chinese motherland,” at events, but is still scared of being arrested the next time that he travels to China.
One of the three, former Czech Republic-based academic Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽), had in 2004 enrolled in a doctoral program at Charles University in Prague before founding and directing a think tank called EU-China Economics and Politics.
Tamkang University professor Wang Kun-yi (王崑義) said that he followed Cheng’s career after having him as student in 1997, and participated in university conferences in China with him.
“Cheng told me his think tank was actually a company to help Chinese students gain admission to post-graduate programs in Czech Republic,” he added.
The professor could not believe that Cheng was a spy, saying that while Cheng was not known for his pro-China stance in the past, he had worked to promote China’s Belt and Road Initiative during his stay in Europe.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS