Chinese-born influencer Xiaowei (小微) was to be deported after failing to voluntarily leave Taiwan before midnight last night, the National Immigration Agency (NIA) said today.
Xiaowei took the 2:10pm flight to Guangzhou, China, from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) reported.
“I love my country, what’s wrong with that?” she shouted to reporters at the airport.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
The spouse of a Taiwanese national and mother of three, Xiaowei, whose given name is Zhao Chan (趙嬋), was reported for posting “reunification” comments on social media and had her dependent-based residency permit revoked on March 21.
Xiaowei was given 10 days to leave the country.
A specialized task force from the NIA this morning prepared to apprehend Xiaowei at her residence in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口).
However, Xiaowei turned herself in to immigration authorities in Jhonghe District (中和) at about 9:45am.
The task force held a meeting this morning to discuss the case with experts and academics, before deciding to begin the process of forced deportation.
Xiaowei may be forcibly deported according to article 18 of 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).
Agents checked that her passport and cross-strait travel documents had not expired or been lost before arranging her onward travel, the agency said.
She departed for the Taoyuan airport at 11:30am.
In recent days, reporters and the public have gathered outside her Linkou residence.
It is suspected that Xiaowei moved to a different location to avoid the crowds, although NIA agents said they tracked her movements.
YouTuber Pa Chiung (八炯) and rapper Chen Po-yuan (陳柏源), public figures known for their anti-Chinese Communist Party videos, gathered outside her Linkou residence yesterday evening, and today waited at the NIA task force base to livestream the events.
“Safe journey Xiaowei. Never come back,” they said.
Xiaowei’s deportation follows two other cases of Chinese-born spouses and social media influencers posting comments that support “military reunification” of China and Taiwan on Chinese social media platform Douyin.
Enqi (恩綺), real name Zhang Yan (張燕), and Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), who goes by “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣), also had their dependent-based residency permits revoked and were ordered to leave, although both women voluntarily returned to China before the deadline.
Enqi left yesterday evening for Chengdu, and Yaya on Tuesday last week for Fuzhou.
Additional reporting by Hsu Sheng-lun and CNA
Taiwan’s growing defense preparations might be sending a stronger signal to the US than to Beijing, highlighting the need for Taipei to tailor its deterrence efforts to different audiences, a US security academic said yesterday. Stanford University Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies fellow Oriana Skylar Mastro made the comment during a Taipei Security Dialogue panel examining lessons Taiwan could draw from the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. Mastro said she was impressed by Taiwan’s increased defense spending, emphasis on asymmetric capabilities and efforts to prepare society for conflict, but questioned whom those initiatives were influencing. She said when she asked
A total of 400 foreign “high- level” professionals have been naturalized as Republic of China (Taiwan) citizens over the past decade as the government has eased nationality rules to attract talent from a wider range of fields, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The 400th high-level professional, who works in the electronics industry, was approved for ROC citizenship on Aug. 26, the MOI said. The MOI quoted the newly naturalized citizen as saying that Taiwan is a leader in fields such as semiconductors, electronics manufacturing, artificial intelligence development and energy technology. He also said
China has warned that it could cancel a planned US-China leaders’ summit if Washington approves new arms sales to Taiwan, a Japanese media outlet quoted sources as saying yesterday. US President Donald Trump, “apparently eager to showcase some diplomatic achievements ahead of November’s midterm congressional elections, places great importance on holding the summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平),” Japan’s Kyodo News reported. “While preparing for Xi’s upcoming trip, China has restated its position that the Taiwan issue is a ‘red line’ in bilateral relations,” the report said. The report said that when Xi met with Trump in Beijing in May, Xi said
RARE PEEK: The footage released showed one of the bears staying in a cave for as long as 70 days, providing the first record of Formosan black bear’s overwintering The Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency yesterday released tracking records of released Formosan black bears for the first time, showing that they get much closer to human settlements than previously thought. The agency said it had captured two bears, Da Qu-ali (達古阿里) and Aziman (阿里曼), in indigenous villages in Hualien County and began to track them with a camera-mounted satellite collar after releasing them back into the wild. The results confirmed that the bears have moved from deep mountain areas into lowland hills closer to human communities, leading to an increase in human-bear conflicts, it said. The agency has introduced artificial intelligence-assisted early
RSS