The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China.
China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan.
Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency.
Photo: Reuters
The instruction was given during a two-day meeting on Taiwan that began on Tuesday last week, the memo said, citing Taiwan’s intelligence.
The meeting was led by Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧), who is part of the Communist Party’s elite Politburo Standing Committee and one of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) closest advisers, the memo said.
In the meeting, Beijing’s embassies and overseas police stations in countries with “a high degree of trust” with China were asked to implement the guidelines by targeting Taiwanese tourists, students and residents, the memo said.
China’s government has previously denied maintaining overseas police stations, but has said there are volunteer-run centers outside China that help Chinese renew documents and offer other services.
The Taiwanese official said Taiwan security agencies have been looking at whether to raise the alert level for travel to certain countries for Taiwanese.
Taiwanese in Cambodia, Laos and some unspecified African nations could risk being detained in for investigation on suspicion of backing independence, the official said, citing Taiwan’s assessment of the development and speaking on condition of anonymity.
“They might be taken for questioning by the local or Chinese police there, at least to psychologically intimidate them,” the official said.
The foreign ministries in Cambodia and Laos did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Taiwan has concluded that some countries, including some in Southeast Asia, have declined to cooperate with China’s request, the official said.
In response to media queries, MOFA yesterday said that it has instructed embassies and overseas offices to evaluate local risks.
It would also step up efforts to remind the public to be aware of their safety.
MOFA said Beijing has been waging legal and cognitive warfare, and implementing “gray zone” tactics to coerce and threaten Taiwan.
Its attempts to cage Taiwan’s democracy and freedom with the guidelines and punish Taiwanese independence activists have raised concerns from the global community and elicited strong criticism, MOFA said.
Taiwan in June last year raised its travel warning for China, Hong Kong and Macau from “yellow” to “orange” following the release of the 22 guidelines.
The travel alert for Taiwanese traveling to Cambodia and Laos is “orange,” its second-highest, advising against nonessential trips due to scam centers, which detain and traffic Chinese speakers to work in them.
Additional reporting by CNA
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
RSS