Believing in Beijing’s promises of peace and prosperity would cause the destruction of Taiwan as a sovereign nation, pro-Hong Kong advocates and human rights groups said in a joint statement on Monday, as they condemned the territory’s largest national security trial opening the day before.
The loss of the nation’s sovereignty would mean mass roundups of Taiwanese and the end of its formerly stable way of life, they said in a joint statement signed by the Taiwan Association of Human Rights, New School for Democracy and Hong Kong Outlanders, among others.
The 47 defendants in the national security trial include some of Hong Kong’s most prominent democracy advocates who were charged with subversion for holding an unofficial primary election. They face up to life in prison if convicted.
Photo: Reuters
As the most immediate target of China’s military buildup, Taiwan must support Hong Kong, which would affirm the nation’s commitment to the universal values of freedom and remind Taiwanese that Beijing’s olive branches often conceal poisonous thorns, the groups said.
It is alarming that a Beijing peace proposal based on its “one China” principle has returned to public discourse in Taiwan, they said, urging Taiwanese to learn from Hong Kong’s experience with communists and their “poisoned sugar pills.”
The groups said the Chinese Communist Party showed a complete disregard for the wishes of Hong Kongers when it rammed the National Security Law through the territory’s legislature.
The establishment of national security judges, abolition of jury trials and utilization of secret trials by Chinese authorities represent a systematic attack on Hong Kong’s legal institutions, the groups said.
Legal proceedings have devolved into nothing more than political drama staged to crush Hong Kongers’ will to resist, but many of the defendants have continued to defy the authorities by confronting the prosecutors in court, they said.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
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