Taiwan on Sunday condemned the arrest of two pro-democracy Hong Kong district councilors under the territory’s new national security legislation.
Hong Kong police arrested Yuen Long District Councilor Henry Wong Pak-yu (王百羽) and Kowloon City’s Timothy Lee Hin-long (李軒朗) on Sunday morning for allegedly exaggerating their election expenses.
Police have made a series of arrests of media figures and politicians under Hong Kong’s National Security Law, which Beijing imposed on the territory in June, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), said in a statement.
The arbitrary detentions by Hong Kong police on national security grounds have infringed on Hong Kongers’ freedom and human rights, the commission said.
The Hong Kong government’s frequent use of national security legislation as a political tool to suppress political dissidents will only lead it to lose the hearts and minds of people and undermine its status as an international financial hub, the commission added.
It called on the authorities to exercise restraint and discontinue the oppression and coercion of opposition activists.
A D100 Internet radio channel host, Wan Yiu-sing (尹耀昇), also known as “Giggs” (傑斯) was on Saturday arrested for launching a campaign to raise money for people who had fled Hong Kong for Taiwan.
Three former lawmakers, Ted Hui, Ray Chan (陳志全) and Eddie Chu (朱凱迪), were arrested on Wednesday last week over a June incident in which a foul-smelling liquid was thrown in the territory’s Legislative Council.
Shatin District Councilor Li Chi-wang (李志宏) was arrested on Tuesday last week for allegedly acting in a disorderly way in public in May near Canal Road Flyover in Causeway Bay.
Li was previously arrested on May 24 during a rally in Causeway Bay against the National Security Law.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened 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), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
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