Taiwanese traveling with legitimate visas are no longer guaranteed entry to Hong Kong, a recent spate of incidents would seem to indicate.
Last month, Chang Chi-yu (
"Even now I still have no idea why I was repatriated," said Chang, who formerly held a position at Chung Hwa Travel Service Hong Kong, Taiwan's representative office in the territory, for four years.
Ming Chu-cheng (
"Not until the Hong Kong media were notified by my friends that I was being detained did the Hong Kong officials let me go," Ming said.
"I frequently travel to Hong Kong, but I never had such an experience before Hong Kong was returned to China [in 1997]," he said.
Adding to the list was an incident in February 2003, when some 80 Taiwanese Falun Gong practitioners arrived for an international conference, but were denied entry for "security reasons."
The incident drew widespread media attention when 10 female members were photographed being put into sacks by police officers and being carried to a plane for deportation.
US-based lawyer Theresa Chu (
They demanded the court to declare the deportation illegal and the abuse inappropriate, but the case was dismissed by the territory's High Court on March 23.
At a press conference organized by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang To-far (
Chu said that Justice Michael Hartmann (
In his verdict, Hartmann said that the director was authorized to deny the entry of the Taiwanese plaintiffs because he can exercise "broad discretionary power."
Chu has argued that the deportation was in violation of Article 4 of the Hong Kong Basic Law, which stipulates that the authorities must safeguard the rights and freedoms of Hong Kong residents and of other persons in the administrative region.
Hartmann said the group had only landed in Hong Kong and wasn't really "in Hong Kong."
Commenting on the ruling, Kenneth Chiu (
"Although there was no democracy in Hong Kong before then either, it did have law and order," Chiu said.
The four plaintiffs will appeal to Court of Appeals of the High Court on Monday, she said.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
RSS