Hong Kong will not welcome any visitors who are looking to “damage the solemnity of the Olympics,” the government said in a report, raising fresh concerns it was clamping down on free speech.
“As a cohost city of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Hong Kong has the obligation to ensure that the relevant Olympic activities will proceed in a safe, peaceful and smooth manner,” the department said in a report to legislators released on Tuesday.
“The government does not welcome it if any person seeks to damage the solemnity of the Olympics or disrupt the smooth proceeding of the relevant Olympic activities in Hong Kong,” the report said.
Hong Kong will host the equestrian events.
“Immigration control and public order must be strengthened especially when major events are taking place in the region,” the report said.
At least 13 people — including known members of activist groups — were prevented from entering Hong Kong ahead of the torch relay’s journey through the territory last Friday. However, US actress and activist Mia Farrow was allowed in despite her vehement criticism of China’s backing of the Sudan government, accused of prolonged rights abuses.
Legislator Cheung Man-kwong (張文光), a pro-democracy activist, said failure to explain the entry bans had damaged Hong Kong’s reputation.
“The government’s silence is a shield to hide the fact that such measures have damaged the ‘one country, two systems’ [arrangement],” he said, according to a report in the South China Morning Post yesterday.
ANTHROPOLOGISTS
Meanwhile, a major academic conference in Kunming in July has been postponed amid a slew of official measures to avoid possible disruptions ahead of the Olympics.
Conference organizers yesterday refused to give a precise reason for the rescheduling of the world congress of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, scheduled for mid-July.
They said they hoped it could be held in late November or early December instead.
”We have postponed the July conference, but I am not at liberty to tell you the reason why,” said Zhang Jijiao, one of the event’s organizers and a sociology professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing.
Zhang said 6,354 people had registered to attend the congress.
Union secretary-general Peter Nas said a postponement would be a major disruption and that he was trying to persuade organizers to keep the original dates.
Taiwan aims to open 18 representative offices and seven Taiwan Tourism Information Centers worldwide by next year to attract international visitors, the Tourism Administration said on Saturday. The agency has so far opened three representative offices abroad this year and would open two more before the end of the year, it said. It has also already opened information centers in Jakarta, Mumbai and Paris, and is to open one in Vancouver next month and in Manila in December, it said. Next year, it would also open offices in Amsterdam, Dubai and Sydney, it added. While the Cabinet did not mention international tourists in its
EYES AT SEA: Many marine enthusiasts have expressed interest in volunteering for coastal patrols, which would help identify stowaways and illegal fishing, the CGA said Six thousand coastal patrol volunteers are to be recruited for 159 inspection offices to enhance the nation’s response to “gray zone” conflicts, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) sources said yesterday. Volunteer teams would be established to increase the resilience of coastal defense systems in the wake of two unlawful entries attempted by Chinese over the past three months, Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. A former Chinese navy captain drove a motorboat into the Tamsui River (淡水河) in Taipei on the eve of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, while another Chinese man sailed in a rubber boat into the Houkeng
NEXT LEVEL: The defense ministry confirmed that a video released last month featured personnel piloting new FPV drone systems being developed by the Armaments Bureau Taipei and Washington are pushing for their drone companies to work together to establish a China-free supply chain, the Financial Times reported on Friday. A delegation of high-level executives and US government officials were yesterday to arrive in Taipei to discuss with their Taiwanese counterparts collaboration on drone technology procurement and development, the report said. The executives represent 26 US manufacturers of drone and counter-drone systems, while the officials are from the US Department of Commerce and the US Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit, along with Dev Shenoy, principal director for microelectronics in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense
‘ANONYMOUS 64’: A national security official said that it is an attempt by China to increase domestic anti-Taiwanese sentiment and inflame cross-strait tensions The Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM) yesterday denied accusations by China that it had undermined regional security by carrying out cyberattacks against targets in China, adding instead that Beijing was responsible for raising tensions and undermining regional peace. The Chinese Ministry of State Security on WeChat accused a hacker group called “Anonymous 64” of targeting China, Hong Kong and Macau starting earlier this year through frequent cyberattacks. The group carried out cyberattacks to seize control of Web sites, outdoor electronic billboards and video-on-demand platforms in China, Hong Kong and Macau, it said, adding the hackers’