None of the five Chinese dissidents who were recently detained in Taiwan for either entering illegally or overstaying their visas have applied to remain in the nation, the Mainland Affairs Council said on Sunday.
The council was responding to an open letter to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), written by US-based Chinese dissident Xin Haonian (辛灝年), asking Taiwan to protect the five dissidents so that they would not have to return to China.
“If they are forced to return home, they would definitely be persecuted again by the Chinese Communist Party [CCP],” Xin wrote.
According to a report on the Washington-based Radio Free Asia, three of the dissidents — Lu Ning (陸寧), Su Qianlong (蘇黔龍) and Shi Jian (石堅) — set sail on a motor yacht from a port in Shangdong in northeastern China early last month.
The plan was to stop in Taiwan to pick up two other dissidents, Wang Zui (王睿) and his girlfriend, Lu Yini (盧旖旎), then to continue onward to Guam, where they would seek political asylum from the US government, the report said.
However, the yacht ran aground off the west coast of Taiwan due to rough seas, forcing them to seek help from Taiwan authorities, and they were detained by the National Immigration Agency, which might deport them to China, the news report said.
A council spokeswoman said at a news conference on Thursday last week that the five dissidents have made it clear that they would seek US asylum. They had been detained in Taiwan either for entering the country illegally or overstaying their tourist visas, she said.
“None of the government agencies have received information stating that the five people want to remain in Taiwan,” the spokeswoman said on Sunday.
Xin, 67, said that all five detainees are democracy fighters against the CCP’s totalitarian rule, and supporters of the idea that the Republic of China should be reinstalled on the mainland.
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