China yesterday said it would punish and sanction United Microelectronics Corp (UMC) founder Robert Tsao (曹興誠) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋) for alleged criminal and pro-Taiwanese independence activities.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) said in a statement that the Kuma Academy that the men are associated with sought to incite separatism that would endanger cross-straits ties.
Tsao, who advocated for Taiwan’s unification with China while UMC chairman in the early 2000s, has been a vocal critic of Beijing since 2019. In August 2022, he pledged to donate NT$1 billion (US$31.09 million at the current exchange rate) to train 3.3 million civilians, called “Kuma Warriors,” in support of Taiwan’s defense efforts.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
Shen helps run Kuma Academy training.
TAO said it would include Tsao and Shen on a list of “Taiwanese independence” diehards and impose sanctions on them and the academy.
The move comes as China yesterday launched fresh military drills around Taiwan. Beijing said the drills were a warning against “separatist acts of Taiwanese independence forces,” while denouncing President William Lai (賴清德) of the DPP.
Tsao and Shen would be barred from traveling to China, Hong Kong and Macau, TAO said, while all affiliated enterprises and businesses linked to the pair would not be allowed to “seek profit” in China.
“The Kuma Academy with the support of the DPP authorities and external interference forces, has brazenly cultivated violent Taiwanese independence elements and openly engaged in ‘Taiwanese independence’ separatist activities under the guise of lectures, training, outdoor drills,” the statement quoted TAO spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華) as saying.
Shen yesterday called the TAO’s statement a provocation from China, rather than the other way round, and said it reflected Beijing’s great sensitivity towards any civilian defense initiatives in Taiwan.
“They will definitely use the threat of [economic] sanctions to conduct further gray zone warfare against Taiwan,” he said.
Tsao and UMC could not be immediately reached for comment.
Also on the list are premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), former legislative speaker You Si-kun (游錫?), National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴), Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄), DPP Legislator Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌), DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘), National Security Council Deputy Secretary-General Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆), former New Power Party legislator Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) and DPP Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇).
Additional reporting by staff writer
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan would issue a decision at 8pm on whether to cancel work and school tomorrow due to forecasted heavy rain, Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said today. Hsieh told reporters that absent some pressing reason, the four northern cities would announce the decision jointly at 8pm. Keelung is expected to receive between 300mm and 490mm of rain in the period from 2pm today through 2pm tomorrow, Central Weather Administration data showed. Keelung City Government regulations stipulate that school and work can be canceled if rain totals in mountainous or low-elevation areas are forecast to exceed 350mm in
EVA Airways president Sun Chia-ming (孫嘉明) and other senior executives yesterday bowed in apology over the death of a flight attendant, saying the company has begun improving its health-reporting, review and work coordination mechanisms. “We promise to handle this matter with the utmost responsibility to ensure safer and healthier working conditions for all EVA Air employees,” Sun said. The flight attendant, a woman surnamed Sun (孫), died on Friday last week of undisclosed causes shortly after returning from a work assignment in Milan, Italy, the airline said. Chinese-language media reported that the woman fell ill working on a Taipei-to-Milan flight on Sept. 22
COUNTERMEASURE: Taiwan was to implement controls for 47 tech products bound for South Africa after the latter downgraded and renamed Taipei’s ‘de facto’ offices The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is still reviewing a new agreement proposed by the South African government last month to regulate the status of reciprocal representative offices, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. Asked about the latest developments in a year-long controversy over Taiwan’s de facto representative office in South Africa, Lin during a legislative session said that the ministry was consulting with legal experts on the proposed new agreement. While the new proposal offers Taiwan greater flexibility, the ministry does not find it acceptable, Lin said without elaborating. The ministry is still open to resuming retaliatory measures against South
1.4nm WAFERS: While TSMC is gearing up to expand its overseas production, it would also continue to invest in Taiwan, company chairman and CEO C.C. Wei said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) has applied for permission to construct a new plant in the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區), which it would use for the production of new high-speed wafers, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council, which supervises three major science parks in Taiwan, confirmed that the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau had received an application on Friday from TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, to commence work on the new A14 fab. A14 technology, a 1.4 nanometer (nm) process, is designed to drive artificial intelligence transformation by enabling faster computing and greater power
RSS