Hong Kong Outlanders yesterday in Taipei called on Beijing to immediately release Next Digital founder Jimmy Lai (黎智英), as closing arguments in his trial continued.
The civic group, formed by Hong Kongers in Taiwan, held a street rally in Taipei’s Ximending (西門町) shopping district in support of the pro-democracy advocate, who has been imprisoned for more than 1,700 days on charges of colluding with foreign forces, under Hong Kong’s National Security Law.
Taiwanese human rights advocate Lee Ming-che (李明哲), who was detained in China and sentenced to five years in prison for “subversion,” said Beijing had imposed Hong Kong’s National Security Law to ensure direct control over politically sensitive cases.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
The law stipulates that any case deemed to endanger national security must be heard by judges designated by the chief executive of Hong Kong, he said.
Lai’s case concerns freedom of speech and was destined to receive disproportionate scrutiny and unfair treatment under the pretext of “national security,” he said, adding that while trial by jury is a longstanding legal tradition in Hong Kong, it has been barred in Lai’s case for that very reason.
Although Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeals in 2022 granted Lai the right to hire an overseas barrister, the government subsequently requested a legal interpretation from the National People’s Congress Standing Committee in Beijing, which overruled the court’s decision, Lee said.
Hong Kong’s fundamental judicial independence was “entirely obliterated” when an executive body was able to overturn a court ruling without being subject to judicial review, he said.
Lai has been kept in solitary confinement for more than 1,700 days, but the Hong Kong government said he was isolated “because he asked for it,” he added.
According to the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, or the Nelson Mandela Rules, solitary confinement should be used only in exceptional cases as a last resort, but prolonged solitary confinement lasting for more than 15 consecutive days amounts to cruel punishment and should be prohibited, he said.
Taiwan-Hong Kong Association director-general Sang Pu (桑普) said he knows Lai and had asked him where he would go if forced to leave Hong Kong.
“Taiwan,” Sang cited Lai as saying.
When Sang asked if he wished to leave with him, Lai said: “No. I am a captain, and a captain would not abandon his ship.”
Lai seeks to build a democratic China and a democratic Hong Kong, Sang said.
That would not affect his love and support for Taiwan, nor his opposition to Chinese Communist Party rule over Taiwan, he said.
Although Beijing considers Lai’s case a felony and may impose severe penalties, there remains a silver lining, Sang said, urging Taiwan and the international community to continue speaking out and pressing for Lai’s release.
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
RSS