The current unrest in Hong Kong should serve as a warning to Taiwan to beware of China’s “political and economic embrace,” the Formosan Association for Public Affairs (FAPA) said.
“We urge the people of Taiwan to resist the attempts of the current Kuomintang [KMT] government of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to move further with his rapprochement with China,” FAPA president Mark Kao (高龍榮) said.
FAPA, a Taiwanese-American grassroots organization with 54 chapters across the US, has also expressed its strong support for demonstrators in Hong Kong amid their struggle for democracy.
Kao said that FAPA “extends a hand in solidarity” to the Hong Kong protesters calling for more freedom, human rights and democracy.
“It is clear that Beijing’s promises of a ‘one country, two systems’ model for Hong Kong were empty promises and that Beijing is not honoring the commitments made in the 1984 Joint Declaration or the Basic Law,” Kao said.
He said that Beijing’s June 10 white paper and its Aug. 31 announcement that the candidates for Hong Kong’s chief executive election in 2017 must be approved by the central government show a “total disregard” for the basic principles of freedom and democracy.
“Even worse, when the people of Hong Kong took to the streets to peacefully express their views on these issues, they were met with riot police using tear gas and pepper spray — and that’s unconscionable,” Kao said.
What is happening in Hong Kong, he said, shows that closer ties with China would be detrimental for Taiwan’s future as a free and democratic nation.
Kao said that he supported the words of US Congressional Committee on Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Asia chairman Steve Cabot that Taiwan must be “very wary” when it comes to trusting China.
“We are seeing it now in Hong Kong,” Kao said. “Taiwan has to be very careful that they don’t get attracted into a situation that might seem like it is a good thing up front, but once you get involved with China you may find that you can’t get yourself out of their clutches.”
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
‘MALIGN PURPOSE’: Governments around the world conduct espionage operations, but China’s is different, as its ultimate goal is annexation, a think tank head said Taiwan is facing a growing existential threat from its own people spying for China, experts said, as the government seeks to toughen measures to stop Beijing’s infiltration efforts and deter Taiwanese turncoats. While Beijing and Taipei have been spying on each other for years, experts said that espionage posed a bigger threat to Taiwan due to the risk of a Chinese attack. Taiwan’s intelligence agency said China used “diverse channels and tactics” to infiltrate the nation’s military, government agencies and pro-China organizations. The main targets were retired and active members of the military, persuaded by money, blackmail or pro-China ideology to steal