The government is to ban Chinese human rights violators from entering the nation following hostile behavior by Beijing and the sentencing of Taiwanese democracy advocate Lee Ming-che (李明哲) for subversion of state power by a Chinese court, sources have said.
In a bid to uphold human rights, a committee of members of the National Immigration Agency (NIA), Mainland Affairs Council and other government agencies has denied entry to at least three Chinese nationals and groups that were found to have persecuted Falun Gong practitioners in China, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Officials from China’s Taiwan Affairs Office whose duties include providing services to China-based Taiwanese will not be banned, as it might prompt criticism, the sources said, adding that the officials make several visits to Taiwan every week.
However, the officials would be prohibited from engaging in four types of activities in Taiwan: making political comments, giving media interviews, promoting unification and meeting with Aborigines in private, the sources said.
The NIA and other government agencies would inspect their visits to investigate if visiting Chinese officials have made any unscheduled trips, the sources said.
To manipulate cross-strait exchanges, China has unilaterally restricted the number of officials and academics visiting Taiwan, disrupting the balance in bilateral visits, the sources said.
In addition to restricting Chinese tourists and students from visiting Taiwan, China has denied or delayed entry to Taiwanese academics and officials, with General Association of Chinese Culture Deputy Secretary-General Chang Tie-chi (張鐵志) being denied entry to Hong Kong last week, the sources said.
Cross-strait exchanges should be reciprocal to develop an orderly and constructive relationship, they said.
China has established the 610 Office as a central government agency to deal with unorthodox religions and the office has ordered Chinese government agencies to suppress Falun Gong practitioners, the sources said, adding that Chinese local governments have also set up similar offices.
Taiwan’s Falun Gong group has given the committee a list of names to be blacklisted and non-governmental organizations have also proposed blacklists targeting Chinese human rights violators.
The committee would deny entry to people who are blacklisted, the sources said.
At least 5,000 people are on the group’s blacklist, which was ignored by the administration of former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Taiwan Falun Gong spokeswoman and attorney Theresa Chu (朱婉琪) said, adding that the group had to file lawsuits against Chinese human rights violators visiting Taiwan.
It has sued a total of 10 people, including former Beijing mayor Guo Jinlong (郭金龍), former Anhui Province governor Wang Sanyun (王三運), former Guangdong Province governor Huang Huahua (黃華華) and Hubei provincial party committee deputy secretary Yang Song (楊松), who led Hubei Province’s version of the 610 Office, Chu said.
However, a prosecutor from the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office asked the group to withdraw the lawsuits, Chu said.
“Those people were invited by Ma. How can the office process the charges?” Chu quoted the unnamed prosecutor as saying.
President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration’s ban on human rights abusers is encouraging, Chu said, adding that the group submitted its blacklist to the US Department of State in October.
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
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
‘VERY SHALLOW’: The center of Saturday’s quake in Tainan’s Dongshan District hit at a depth of 7.7km, while yesterday’s in Nansai was at a depth of 8.1km, the CWA said Two magnitude 5.7 earthquakes that struck on Saturday night and yesterday morning were aftershocks triggered by a magnitude 6.4 quake on Tuesday last week, a seismologist said, adding that the epicenters of the aftershocks are moving westward. Saturday and yesterday’s earthquakes occurred as people were preparing for the Lunar New Year holiday this week. As of 10am yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) recorded 110 aftershocks from last week’s main earthquake, including six magnitude 5 to 6 quakes and 32 magnitude 4 to 5 tremors. Seventy-one of the earthquakes were smaller than magnitude 4. Thirty-one of the aftershocks were felt nationwide, while 79
RSS