A member of a pro-Taiwan independence group yesterday filed a complaint with the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office accusing Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) central committee member Vincent Hsu (徐正文) of doctoring the passenger list of the first charter flight of Taiwanese evacuees from Wuhan on Monday.
The flight, which landed in Taoyuan, sparked debate when it was discovered that three of the 247 people on board had not been on the priority list Taiwan provided to China.
The outcry escalated when one of the three passengers tested positive for the 2019 novel coronavirus, becoming the nation’s 11th case.
Photo: Chien Li-chung, Taipei Times
Hsu, who represents a self-help group of Taiwanese in Wuhan and helped arrange the flight, could have breached the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法) and the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例) by helping China “smuggle” extra passengers on board the flight, Taiwan Republic Office director Chilly Chen (陳峻涵) said.
More than 10 passengers on the flight were Chinese spouses of Taiwanese, taking priority over children and the elderly, who remain at risk in Wuhan, Chen said.
“It is China’s virus, a modern Trojan horse executed jointly by the red [Chinese Communist Party] and the blue [KMT] camps,” he said. “It is unbelievable that Hsu claimed that he was unaware of the change of passengers.”
On Thursday, the KMT said in a statement, after Hsu held several news conferences and spoke to reporters about the outbreak, that his remarks did not represent those of the party.
Hsu’s comments helped to “foment panic” and “severely damaged the party’s image and reputation,” it said, adding that his party membership would be suspended.
Additional reporting by CNA and Shih Hsiao-kuang
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
RSS