Beijing yesterday sanctioned Representative to the US Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) and several US institutions, accusing them of abetting “Taiwan separatist activities,” following President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) meetings in the US during stopovers on her trip to Central America.
In response to Tsai’s meeting with US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California and her activities in New York during a stopover en route to Belize and Guatemala, Beijing announced sanctions against the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute and the Washington-based Hudson Institute.
McCarthy and Tsai met at the Reagan library in Simi Valley on Wednesday.
Photo from Hsiao Bi-khim’s Facebook page
The Reagan library and the Hudson Institute, which on Thursday last week gave Tsai its Global Leadership Award, were sanctioned for “providing a platform and convenience to Taiwan separatist activities,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
Chinese institutions are prohibited from having any cooperation or contact with them, the ministry said.
An e-mail seeking comment from the Reagan foundation was not immediately answered on Thursday.
The ban on Hsiao does not appear to be substantively different from a sanction placed on her when then-US House speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August last year.
China at the time announced sanctions on Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) officials, including Hsiao, banning them, their family members and organizations they are linked to from traveling to or operating in China, including Hong Kong.
Yesterday’s announcement said that financial sponsors of Hsiao are also included.
Hsiao posted a screen grab from the Web site of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) on Twitter, writing: “Wow, the PRC just sanctioned me again, for the second time,” referring to the People’s Republic of China.
The Taipei-based Prospect Foundation and the Philippines-based Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats were sanctioned for involvement in promoting Taiwanese independence “under the guise of academic and research exchanges,” TAO spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) said.
The Prospect Foundation works on dialogue and cooperation on issues related to security, economy and social development. The Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats — of which the DPP is a member — is a regional organization established in Thailand that promotes exchanges among liberal and democratic political parties in Asia.
The ministry also sanctioned Sarah Stern, chair of the Hudson Institute’s board of directors, and John Walters, the institute’s director; as well as John Heubusch, former executive director of the Reagan foundation — which manages the library — and Joanne Drake, its chief administrator.
The people are barred from visiting China, and any property or financial assets belonging to sanctioned people or entities in China would be frozen, the ministry said.
“We will take resolute measures to punish the Taiwan independence separatist forces and their actions, and resolutely safeguard our country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the TAO said in a statement.
The Mainland Affairs Council said that it is established practice for presidents of Taiwan to transit in the US on trips to visit diplomatic allies in Central America.
As a sovereign nation, Taiwan has the right to interact with other countries, it said, adding that China has no right to comment.
Meanwhile, China deployed warships and aircraft near Taiwan for a second day yesterday, the Ministry of National Defense said.
Three Chinese warships sailed in waters near Taiwan, while a fighter jet and an anti-submarine helicopter also entered the nation’s air defense identification zone, it said.
On Wednesday, China’s Shandong aircraft carrier, one of two in its naval fleet, sailed south of Taiwan on its way to the western Pacific, hours before Tsai met McCarthy.
Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) yesterday said that defense and security agencies were keeping a close eye on developments, and asked “the public to rest assured.”
Additional reporting by Chung Li-hua and AFP
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening 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) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS