Hong Kong and Tibetan advocates in Taiwan last night staged a rally against human rights abuses in China, as Beijing celebrated Chinese National Day.
The event outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei was livestreamed online.
Rally organizers told a news conference earlier in the day that Taiwan must take the threat of China seriously and should amend immigration laws to allow Hong Kongers and Macanese a path to permanent residency.
Photo: CNA
“Hong Kong, the home I grew up in, is lost forever... Taiwan is my second home and I will not be a bystander as China threatens it with destruction,” said a Hong Kong Outlanders executive committee member, who uses the pseudonym “Sky.”
Beijing has waged a campaign to exterminate Tibetan culture and education since Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s (習近平) ascension to power, Human Rights Network for Tibet and Taiwan director Tashi Tsering said.
“People said that the Chinese Communist Party is not a pushover and Tibetans would not defeat it regardless of what they do, but it does not have to be me or my generation to see victory,” he said. “The important thing is solidarity among Tibetans, Uighurs, Mongolians and Hong Kongers; sooner or later, our day will come.”
Photo: CNA
Taiwan Association for Human Rights deputy secretary-general Wang Si (王曦) said that Hong Kong exiles in Taiwan are in an uneasy legal situation, as they can obtain resident status, but the laws are ambiguous on seeking permanent residency.
The main issue lies in the Act Governing Relations with Hong Kong and Macau (香港澳門關係條例), which does not specify the status of residents from the territories after two years, she said.
That the US revoked Hong Kong’s special status last year called into question the underlying assumptions upon which Taiwan structured its laws on Hong Kong and Macau, Economic Democracy Union research fellow Chiang Min-yen (江旻諺) said.
As Beijing has all but terminated the autonomy of these territories, Taipei should comprehensively review the regulations governing financial transactions with them, he said.
Investors from Hong Kong must be vetted by national security officials with the same level of scrutiny that would be applied to those from mainland China, he said, adding that the existing laws hinder Hong Kongers seeking asylum in Taiwan.
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