China should not allow its regional officials to oppress and extort money from Taiwanese businesspeople, and the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) should have prevention schemes and rescue channels in place, a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker said yesterday.
DPP Legislator Chang Ching-fang (
"Some Chinese regional officials have falsely accused certain businessmen of tax evasion or smuggling, and arrested them. Then the officials would demand a huge amount of ransom from the businessmen's family or company, as well as documents that prove the businessmen's support for the pan-blue camp," Chang said.
Chang said the Chinese government should not allow regional officials to suppress and extort money from Taiwanese businesspeople, and that the MAC should prepare prevention schemes and rescue channels to protect businesspeople's safety.
Chang also played a tape of a telephone recording in which a Taiwanese businessman told Chang that his company's general manager was arrested for smuggling, whereupon Chinese officials asked for a ransom of NT$8 million and an election-ballot receipt as proof that the man voted for the Lien-Soong ticket in Taiwan's presidential election.
The businessman then explained to the officials there was no such a thing as a ballot receipt in Taiwan.
The official replied that it would be fine just to hand over the money. After some bargaining, the two sides agreed on a NT$6.5 million ransom.
The businessman said that the officials told him to pay the money in Hong Kong and after the money was handed over, the general manager was finally released.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei County Councilor Wang Jing-yuan (
The businessman said that the Chinese officials demanded a ransom of NT$4 million and demanded to see a certificate from the pan-blue campaign headquarters as proof of the partner's councilor status.
Wang said that the ransom was paid last weekend, but the partner's release was still being negotiated.
Both Chang and Wang said that protecting Taiwanese businesspeople's rights in China is an important issue for both the pan-blue camp and the pan-green camp, and they asked the MAC to protest and voice its concern to China.
"On the one hand, China says that it will take care of Taiwanese businessmen in China, but on the other hand, it still allows regional officials to bully the businessmen. If this continues, more and more Taiwanese businessmen will refrain from investing in China, and lose faith in China," Chang said.
Also see story:
UNITED: The premier said Trump’s tariff comments provided a great opportunity for the private and public sectors to come together to maintain the nation’s chip advantage The government is considering ways to assist the nation’s semiconductor industry or hosting collaborative projects with the private sector after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 100 percent tariff on chips exported to the US, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. Trump on Monday told Republican members of the US Congress about plans to impose sweeping tariffs on semiconductors, steel, aluminum, copper and pharmaceuticals “in the very near future.” “It’s time for the United States to return to the system that made us richer and more powerful than ever before,” Trump said at the Republican Issues Conference in Miami, Florida. “They
GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: Taiwan must capitalize on the shock waves DeepSeek has sent through US markets to show it is a tech partner of Washington, a researcher said China’s reported breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) would prompt the US to seek a stronger alliance with Taiwan and Japan to secure its technological superiority, a Taiwanese researcher said yesterday. The launch of low-cost AI model DeepSeek (深度求索) on Monday sent US tech stocks tumbling, with chipmaker Nvidia Corp losing 16 percent of its value and the NASDAQ falling 612.46 points, or 3.07 percent, to close at 19,341.84 points. On the same day, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Sector index dropped 488.7 points, or 9.15 percent, to close at 4,853.24 points. The launch of the Chinese chatbot proves that a competitor can
TAIWAN DEFENSE: The initiative would involve integrating various systems in a fast-paced manner through the use of common software to obstruct a Chinese invasion The first tranche of the US Navy’s “Replicator” initiative aimed at obstructing a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be ready by August, a US Naval Institute (USNI) News report on Tuesday said. The initiative is part of a larger defense strategy for Taiwan, and would involve launching thousands of uncrewed submarines, surface vessels and aerial vehicles around Taiwan to buy the nation and its partners time to assemble a response. The plan was first made public by the Washington Post in June last year, when it cited comments by US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue
MARITIME SECURITY: Of the 52 vessels, 15 were rated a ‘threat’ for various reasons, including the amount of time they spent loitering near subsea cables, the CGA said Taiwan has identified 52 “suspicious” Chinese-owned ships flying flags of convenience that require close monitoring if detected near the nation, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday, as the nation seeks to protect its subsea telecoms cables. The stricter regime comes after a Cameroon-flagged vessel was briefly detained by the CGA earlier this month on suspicion of damaging an international cable northeast of Taiwan. The vessel is owned by a Hong Kong-registered company with a Chinese address given for its only listed director, the CGA said previously. Taiwan fears China could sever its communication links as part of an attempt
RSS