Academics yesterday criticized China after staff at Taiwan’s representative office in Hong Hong were required to sign a document supporting Beijing’s “one China” principle.
All except one of the eight remaining staff members at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Hong Kong were forced to return to Taipei on Sunday after they failed to obtain visa extensions.
The Mainland Affairs Council in a statement on Sunday said that China and the Hong Kong government had set “unreasonable political conditions” for visa extension applications by TECO Hong Kong staff, including requiring them to sign a pledge to observe the “one China” policy.
The staff could not sign a document that was “tantamount to acknowledging Bejing’s suzerainty,” Academia Sinica Institute of Sociology fellow Wu Jieh-min (吳介民) told a virtual news conference yesterday.
“That would compromise Taiwan’s sovereignty, and alter the status quo across the Taiwan Strait,” Wu told the event, which was organized by the Economic Democracy Union.
Such a concession would signal that Taiwan has surrendered to China and switched its allegiance from the alliance of democracies to a totalitarian regime, he said.
Taiwan must protect its sovereignty without giving up on protecting the human rights of Hong Kongers, he said.
Human rights are the cornerstone of Taiwan’s democracy and part of its responsibility as a member of the global camp of democratic states, Wu said.
The council should continue to help Hong Kong’s exiled democracy advocates, including with employment assistance, he said.
The Act Governing Relations with Hong Kong and Macau (香港澳門關係條例) was promulgated under the assumption that China would honor the Hong Kong Basic Law and the Sino-British Joint Declaration, Wu said.
As China has all but torn up those documents, the legal justification for treating Hong Kong and China differently is null and void, he said, adding that the Legislative Yuan should consider asserting Taiwan’s support for human rights by amending the act.
Taiwan should develop an institutionalized response to China’s legal instruments in Hong Kong that could be used to jail Taiwanese, such as the National Security Law and the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law, he said.
Economic Democracy Union convener Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) said that the law treats investments from Hong Kong the same as those from elsewhere, but the territory’s loss of autonomy has made that position untenable.
Hong Kong-based firms that are owned in part or in full by Beijing-backed entities should be regulated as Chinese-based investors to stop them from influencing Taiwan’s economy, Lai said.
As the Closer Economic Partnership Agreement and Beijing’s 14th Five Year Plan showed, China intends to integrate Hong Kong and Macau into its economy, he said.
This makes the legal differentiation between Hong Kong and China-based investors unjustifiable and a potential loophole for China to abuse, he said.
FORCED TITLE: Most of the nation’s Olympians identify as Taiwanese, and a majority of them do not hail from Taipei, adding another layer of absurdity to the misnomer The sports world is to focus on the Tokyo Olympic Games starting on Friday, and once again Taiwanese will not have a “Team Taiwan” to cheer for, but will be stuck with the deceitful, contrived name of “Chinese Taipei.” It is a dishonest name, imposed by international politics under pressure from China and the International Olympic Committee, acquiesced to by the former lackeys on Taiwan’s Olympic committee. For a majority of Taiwanese, it is more fitting and simpler to shout “Go Taiwan!” (台灣加油). More people are saying that “Chinese Taipei” is a gross distortion and fraudulent representation for Taiwan’s star athletes in
‘FAILED TACTICS’: A lawmaker said Beijing’s actions in Hong Kong and Taiwan’s success at boosting its ties internationally have boosted identification as Taiwanese Self-identification as “Taiwanese and Chinese,” or solely as “Chinese,” has dropped to record lows, while 63.3 percent of the public regard themselves as Taiwanese, a survey released on Tuesday by National Chengchi University’s Election Study Center showed. Respondents identifying as Taiwanese and Chinese dropped to 31.4 percent, while those identifying solely as Chinese fell to 2.7 percent, the survey showed. The results reflect changes in attitudes since 1994 among Taiwanese toward independence and unification with China, as well as self-identification trends since 1992, commenters said. Support for independence was 25.8 percent, while about 5 percent of respondents said that they want the nation
The national Olympic team yesterday departed for Japan to compete in the Tokyo Games starting on Friday. The 134-strong Olympic delegation includes officials, support staff and 68 athletes, who are to compete in 18 sports through Aug. 8. Taiwan is competing in the Games under the name Chinese Taipei. The delegation is led by Taiwan’s top female weightlifter, Kuo Hsing-chun (郭婞淳), who is to carry the team flag at the opening ceremony. It also includes world No. 1 women’s singles badminton player Tai Tzu-ying (戴資穎), as well as athletes who are to compete in cycling, taekwondo, judo, shooting, canoeing, rowing and archery
ONLY EXCEPTIONS: The mayors of the two largest cities voiced concerns over hidden cases, while all other local governments are to follow eased CECC guidelines All local governments, with the exception of Taipei and New Taipei City, are to allow dine-in services at restaurants after the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Friday announced that it would on Tuesday lower a nationwide COVID-19 alert to level 2. The center on July 8 allowed the resumption of dining at restaurants nationwide — despite keeping the alert level at 3. At the time, this prompted all cities and counties, except Penghu Country, to keep local dine-in bans in place. Following Friday’s CECC announcement that COVID-19 prevention measures would be further relaxed, the Taipei and New Taipei City governments
RSS