New guidelines on civil servants’ visits to Hong Kong and Macau have been in effect since they were promulgated by the Executive Yuan on Tuesday, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday, adding that those who contravene the rules would be subject to penalties starting on July 1 next year.
The amendments to the Travel Guidelines for Personnel of the Executive Yuan and its Subordinate Agencies Traveling to Hong Kong or Macau (行政院及所屬各機關人員赴香港或澳門注意事項) require government workers to report all their trips to the two Chinese territories, whether they occur on weekdays or holidays, MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a news conference in Taipei.
Government workers must report to the agencies they work for regarding the people of special statuses they are to meet or contact during the trips, he said, adding that trips and their purposes must be registered at the government’s human resources system a week prior to departure.
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
All government workers are expected to abide by the new guidelines, Liang said.
Penalties for those who contravene the new guidelines would be set by the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration and would be officially administered on July 1 next year, he added.
“We would not issue any punishment if they failed to follow the guidelines between now and July 1 next year,” Liang said.
The council does not have a list of officials or people that government workers are not supposed to meet while traveling in the two territories, he added.
“Generally, there are two kinds of people: government officials, or employees or people engaging in suspicious activities,” Liang said. “Hong Kong and Macau are known to be hubs of espionage activities, and we cannot list all the possible Chinese agents, as they can work as a chairman of a company or a foundation. However, we believe that Taiwanese civil servants would be on alert and report these individuals.”
Civil servants should report and register their trips to Hong Kong and Macau three days before departure if they are not traveling for government business, the council said.
Reports and registrations must be completed seven days before departure if they are to meet with officials and legislators in the two territories, or Chinese military personnel, Chinese Communist Party officials or Chinese government officials who are based in Hong Kong or Macau, it said.
Any unscheduled meeting or contact with such people must be reported within one week of returning to Taiwan, with the report filed through the person’s agency and forwarded to the MAC, the council said.
In related news, Liang said that the government has launched an investigation into a man named Ying Chih-hung (應志宏), who cut up his Taiwanese passport during a live broadcast on Xiaohongshu, or Rednote, after saying that he has obtained a Chinese ID.
“The National Immigration Agency will cancel his household registration and Taiwanese ID card if it was determined he has contravened the law,” Liang said.
Ying was placed on Taiwan’s wanted list after he fled to China in October 2021 to avoid investigations into his alleged involvement in fraud and money laundering cases.
“We think that he verbally expressed his love for the ‘motherland’ and wanted to renounce his Taiwanese citizenship, because he is on the wanted list in Taiwan,” he said.
The government has yet to receive an application from Ying renouncing his Taiwanese citizenship, Liang said, adding that Beijing should repatriate those who committed or are involved in crimes in Taiwan so they could be legally punished.
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