Ching Cheong (
"The whole thing doesn't have anything to do with Taiwan," council Vice Chairman Michael You (
China's foreign ministry said on May 31 that Ching, a reporter for Singapore's Straits Times newspaper, was arrested for working for "foreign intelligence agencies and accepted large amounts of spying fees."
The Hong Kong-based Standard newspaper said on Wednesday that China appears to imply that Ching works for Taiwan.
China's foreign ministry spokesman declined to comment on You's statement at a regular press briefing on Wednesday in Beijing, saying only journalists working in China are responsible for knowing its laws.
"The journalists must have professional ethics and standards, and that includes knowing China's laws on national secrets," ministry spokesman Kong Quan (孔泉) said. "Anyone who violates the law will be punished."
Kong said there are 480 accredited foreign journalists working in China, and the country hosts more than 5,000 visiting journalists a year.
"China welcomes all journalists, even those who do not write good news about China," Kong said. "But we do not tolerate those who break the law."
China, with 42 journalists in prison as of Dec. 31, was the leading jailer of journalists for a sixth straight year, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra