Greater global action is needed to safeguard human rights as Beijing implements new extradition agreements, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Fan Yun (范雲) said yesterday at the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) summit in Brussels.
More than 50 lawmakers from 20 nations attended the event, which ran from Friday to yesterday, with Taiwan attending for the first time as a member state.
China’s authoritarian expansion poses a threat to economic, security and democratic norms around the world, Fan said.
Photo courtesy of Fan Yun’s office
UK-based media have reported that Beijing has used its massive investments to influence British politics, while figures sponsored by the Chinese government interfered in the elections of Australia and Canada, she said.
Chinese spies were reportedly also targeting political entities in the US and the Philippines, she said.
Taiwan has embarked on efforts to decouple from the Chinese economy in a bid to reduce the nation’s vulnerability to Beijing’s economic coercion, she said, adding that China last year accounted for 7.5 percent of Taiwan’s foreign investments, down from 84 percent in 2010.
Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) attendance at the summit marked a new high in the international community’s support for Taiwan and its opposition to authoritarian China, Fan said.
She thanked alliance members for being among the first to condemn China’s plot — which it did not act on — to cause a car crash last year targeting Hsiao in Prague.
IPAC is the only international organization that resists China as its core mission, Fan added.
The alliance’s stature has grown substantially among Taiwanese thanks to its opposition to China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758, she said.
Taiwan, which has long stood against the authoritarian threat emanating from China, is able and willing to share its experience with the rest of the world, she said.
Three Taiwanese airlines have prohibited passengers from packing Bluetooth earbuds and their charger cases in checked luggage. EVA Air and Uni Air said that Bluetooth earbuds and charger cases are categorized as portable electronic devices, which should be switched off if they are placed in checked luggage based on international aviation safety regulations. They must not be in standby or sleep mode. However, as charging would continue when earbuds are placed in the charger cases, which would contravene international aviation regulations, their cases must be carried as hand luggage, they said. Tigerair Taiwan said that earbud charger cases are equipped
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
WEATHER Typhoon forming: CWA A tropical depression is expected to form into a typhoon as early as today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, adding that the storm’s path remains uncertain. Before the weekend, it would move toward the Philippines, the agency said. Some time around Monday next week, it might reach a turning point, either veering north toward waters east of Taiwan or continuing westward across the Philippines, the CWA said. Meanwhile, the eye of Typhoon Kalmaegi was 1,310km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, as of 2am yesterday, it said. The storm is forecast to move through central
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