Taiwan should appeal to the international community to show that China’s guidelines threatening the use of the death penalty against Taiwanese independence supporters violates the spirit of the UN charter and human rights, academics said yesterday.
China on Friday issued new guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession,” including the use of the death penalty in “particularly serious” cases. Crimes worthy of punishment include promoting “two Chinas,” “one China, one Taiwan” or “Taiwanese independence.”
At a forum in Taipei held by the Association of Chinese Elite Leadership, association research fellow Wang Chih-sheng (王智盛) said the guidelines are comparable to Hong Kong’s National Security Law, as they allow China to conduct trials in absentia for any behavior it deems to “split the state.”
That means Taiwanese who travel or transfer in China, Hong Kong or Macau, or take a Chinese airline, would put themselves at risk of being arrested by Chinese authorities, Wang said.
Even campaigning for Taiwan to join international organizations is considered an offense under the guidelines, such as when Deputy Legislative Speaker Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) last month traveled to Geneva, Switzerland, to advocate for Taiwan’s participation in the 77th World Health Assembly, he said.
The guidelines are part of a long-prepared strategy for Beijing to weaponize its judiciary to criminalize Taiwanese independence and deter advocates with elaborately devised rules, Prospect Foundation vice president Raymond Sung (宋承恩) said, adding that the guidelines follow Beijing’s remark on May 21 that President William Lai’s (賴清德) inaugural speech was his “confession of Taiwanese independence.”
Whether Taiwanese traveling overseas would be arrested and extradited to China for trial depends on whether China can exercise the illicit jurisdiction it asserts in other countries, Sung said.
Many nations suspended extradition agreements with China when it began to prosecute and imprison Hong Kongers for political reasons under Hong Kong’s National Security Law, he said.
The government should argue to the international community that China’s guidelines contravene international law, including its illicit expansion of extraterritorial jurisdiction and human rights violations by incriminating individuals for their speech or political opinions, he said.
Taiwanese should be careful of the 65 countries that have treaties on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters with China, Taiwan Thinktank researcher Wu Se-chih (吳瑟致) said.
This does not automatically mean those countries would necessarily extradite Taiwanese to China, but the risk is higher in some African, Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian countries, Wu said, adding that Tibet independence activists had been repatriated to China by the Thai and Malaysian governments.
The Straits Exchange Foundation has received 84 reports of personal security incidents from January to May, he said, adding that Taiwanese should avoid traveling to China, Hong Kong or Macau as the territories would enforce the guidelines.
Allowing trials in absentia is clearly at odds with the spirit of the UN Charter, and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), who approved the guidelines, is the one seeking to tear apart the cross-strait relationship, Taiwan Association of University Professors chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said.
The government should ban travel agency tours to China and tell people not to transfer flights in China, Hong Kong or Macau, as they could be arrested there, he said.
Three batches of banana sauce imported from the Philippines were intercepted at the border after they were found to contain the banned industrial dye Orange G, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. From today through Sept. 2 next year, all seasoning sauces from the Philippines are to be subject to the FDA’s strictest border inspection, meaning 100 percent testing for illegal dyes before entry is allowed, it said in a statement. Orange G is an industrial coloring agent that is not permitted for food use in Taiwan or internationally, said Cheng Wei-chih (鄭維智), head of the FDA’s Northern Center for
LOOKING NORTH: The base would enhance the military’s awareness of activities in the Bashi Channel, which China Coast Guard ships have been frequenting, an expert said The Philippine Navy on Thursday last week inaugurated a forward operating base in the country’s northern most province of Batanes, which at 185km from Taiwan would be strategically important in a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait. The Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted Northern Luzon Command Commander Lieutenant General Fernyl Buca as saying that the base in Mahatao would bolster the country’s northern defenses and response capabilities. The base is also a response to the “irregular presence this month of armed” of China Coast Guard vessels frequenting the Bashi Channel in the Luzon Strait just south of Taiwan, the paper reported, citing a
UNDER PRESSURE: The report cited numerous events that have happened this year to show increased coercion from China, such as military drills and legal threats The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) aims to reinforce its “one China” principle and the idea that Taiwan belongs to the People’s Republic of China by hosting celebratory events this year for the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, the “retrocession” of Taiwan and the establishment of the UN, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said in its latest report to the Legislative Yuan. Taking advantage of the significant anniversaries, Chinese officials are attempting to assert China’s sovereignty over Taiwan through interviews with international news media and cross-strait exchange events, the report said. Beijing intends to reinforce its “one China” principle
A total lunar eclipse, an astronomical event often referred to as a “blood moon,” would be visible to sky watchers in Taiwan starting just before midnight on Sunday night, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said. The phenomenon is also called “blood moon” due to the reddish-orange hue it takes on as the Earth passes directly between the sun and the moon, completely blocking direct sunlight from reaching the lunar surface. The only light is refracted by the Earth’s atmosphere, and its red wavelengths are bent toward the moon, illuminating it in a dramatic crimson light. Describing the event as the most important astronomical phenomenon
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