Chinese authorities are holding a US citizen whom they accused of spying for Taiwan.
A spokeswoman at the US embassy in Beijing said that its state security services detained Xie Chunren (謝春仁), a businessman of Chinese descent from New Jersey, on May 31 in Chengdu, the capital of southwestern Sichuan Province.
Xie was being kept at a guesthouse under house arrest, which Chinese authorities often use to get around limits set on how long suspects can be held before formal charges are brought.
"He is currently under residential surveillance under suspicion of espionage for Taiwan," the US embassy spokeswoman said, adding that the US consulate in Chengdu was notified of Xie's detention on June 2.
US diplomats have been allowed to visit him three times since then.
His son, Xie Yuanyang (謝元楊), denied that his father was a spy. The son told the International Herald Tribune that he believed his father had mistakenly been caught up in an investigation of old acquaintance Wei Dong (魏東), another US citizen arrested by China in 2003 on charges of spying.
Xie Yuanyang told the newspaper that Dong and his father were not on good terms and, besides one encounter in 2000, had not seen each other in more than 10 years.
Xie Chunren's arrest came amid rising fears of infiltration within China's communist leadership and an expansion of Chinese investigations aimed at ferreting out suspected agents for Taiwan.
Two weeks ago, China also formally charged Ching Cheong (
Both Ching's wife and Taiwan's government denied the charges.
Ching was detained when he was in China to collect transcripts of interviews with late Communist Party leader Zhao Ziyang (
Zhao opposed China's bloody reaction to the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy protests. He was stripped of his party position and was put under house arrest from 1989 until his death early this year.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS