Falun Gong practitioner Shao Yuhua (邵玉華) — who came to Taiwan 11 years ago after marrying a Taiwanese man and now holds Republic of China (ROC) citizenship — and her daughter were allegedly arrested by state security agents in China, members of the Taiwan Falun Dafa Association said yesterday.
“My wife went back to her hometown in Nanyang, Henan Province, with our 10-year-old daughter to visit her family last month soon after the summer vacation started,” Shao’s husband, Cheng Shu-ta (鄭書達), told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. “Her family in Henan told me yesterday [Friday] that she — along with our daughter — were arrested by state security agents.”
Cheng said his wife had been staying with her sister Shao Yuxiu (邵玉秀), who is also a Falun Gong practitioner, during her visit to China.
At about 6am on Friday, a few men who identified themselves as agents from the Ministry of State Security showed up at the door and took away Shao Yuhua and her daughter, Cheng said. The men also took Shao Yuhua’s cellphone, baggage and passport, he said.
“So far, we’re still not clear where she is,” he said.
Although it was not clear why Shao Yuhua was taken away, Taiwan Falun Dafa Association chairman Chang Ching-hsi (張清溪) suspected it had to do with her being a Falun Gong practitioner.
“We urge [China] to release the two kidnapped ROC citizens and their families and relatives in China immediately. We want promises that no such human rights violations will be committed again,” Chang said.
“As an immigrant spouse from China, Shao Yuhua is supposed to be protected by governments on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, but she is now missing because of her spiritual beliefs,” he said.
“How can the people of Taiwan believe there can be friendly exchanges between China and Taiwan?” he asked.
Chang called on the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) and the Strait Exchange Foundation (SEF) to intervene.
After the news conference, Chang and several other Falun Gong practitioners went to the Landis Hotel where China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Yang Yi (楊毅) was scheduled to attend a dinner reception hosted by Taiwanese business leaders, hoping to deliver their petition to Yang.
However, Yang ignored the practitioners and walked straight into an elevator.
Contacted by the Taipei Times for comment, MAC vice-chairman Liu Te-shun (劉德勳) said that as soon as the MAC learned the news from the media, it “asked the SEF to get in touch with the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait to see how we can help.”
NOTE: In the article above, we reported that Falun Gong practitioner Shao Yuhua's daughter was detained and that her sister is also a Falun Gong follower. Shao's daughter was not detained. Her sister does not practice Falun Gong and was detained briefly by Chinese police and released. Only Shao remains in detention. The Taipei Times regrets the error.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats