More than 610,000 Hong Kong residents defied government warnings and a fresh COVID-19 outbreak to vote in an unofficial primary over the weekend, a strong turnout that signals continued resistance to Beijing’s decision to impose a broad National Security Law two weeks ago. Those who turned out — representing more than 13 percent of registered voters — cast ballots in the two-day vote to narrow down the opposition candidates competing in elections for the territory’s Legislative Council set for Sept. 6. The turnout, which was more than three times organizers’ expected tally, came despite government statements that the effort could violate provisions of the new security legislation. The results were originally meant to come out late yesterday, but were delayed amid lengthy vote-counting. However, that still gives the selected candidates plenty of time to officially register when the window opens later this month. Those selected must still overcome calls for disqualification by pro-Beijing politicians, with more moderate pro-democracy groups on Sunday issuing a call for their supporters to challenge more radical “localist” candidates. “People took this opportunity to make their voice heard,” pro-democracy Hong Kong Legislator Alvin Yeung (楊岳橋) told Bloomberg Television yesterday. “We’re talking about 600,000 people. It’s not a small number. And remember, this is not an election organized by the government. It’s organized by civil society. And so this is amazing.” The Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute — which helped the democrats conduct the primary — yesterday said that all votes on Hong Kong Island were counted by 5pm. Counting was going on for other areas and it said that it expected to be finished by about noon today. “Hong Kong people just made a miracle by telling the world that more democratic candidates should join the elections,” said former legislator Au Nok-hin (區諾軒), one of the organizers. Some pro-establishment politicians
China yesterday announced sanctions against US officials, including senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, in a largely symbolic attempt to retaliate over Washington’s moves to punish Beijing for its treatment of ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang region. Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Hua Chunying (華春瑩) said sanctions against the four officials would begin yesterday, without elaborating. Hua listed Rubio and Cruz — both Republicans and high-profile critics of China — as targets of the measures, in addition to US Ambassador for Religious Freedom Sam Brownback, US Representative Chris Smith and the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. “Xinjiang is China’s internal affairs and the US has no right to interfere,” Hua said at a regular briefing in Beijing. “We urge the US to immediately withdraw its wrong decisions, stop interfering in China’s internal affairs or undermining China’s interests. We will make further reactions based on the development of the situation.” The move comes after the US sanctioned a top member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and three other officials over alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang. The individuals sanctioned by the US include Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region CCP Secretary Chen Quanguo (陳全國), a member of the CCP’s 25-member politburo; CCP Secretary of the Xinjiang Political and Legal Committee Zhu Hailun (朱海侖); Xinjiang Public Security Bureau Director Wang Mingshan (王明山); and Huo Liujun (霍留軍), a former top official in Xiinjiang’s police force. The tit-for-tat exchanges appeared calibrated to keep the disputes from further escalating and disrupting other aspects of ties between the world’s two largest economies, such as their “phase one” trade deal. The US moves were largely symbolic, since both groups of US and Chinese officials were unlikely to have much financial or legal exposure to each other’s countries. “This is an equivalent action targeting the main people responsible for what happened with sanctioning Chinese
PATENTS PENDING: The researchers have been granted a Taiwan patent for their discovery and are applying in the US, the UK and Japan, the team leader said
Exosomes derived from stem cells have the potential to regenerate damaged brain cells, and could someday be used for to treat brain damage and neural degeneration diseases, researchers from the National Health Research Institutes (NHRI) said yesterday. Team leader Li Hua-jung (李華容), an associate investigator at the Institute of Cellular and System Medicine, told a news conference in Taipei that brain damage and neurodegenerative diseases often cause irreversible impairment for patients, and increase the risk of dementia. More than 270,000 people in Taiwan are estimated to have dementia, which is a big challenge to the nation’s aging society, she said. Traumatic brain injury, unhealthy habits, hypertension, diabetes, long-term stress or mental illness are all potential risk factors for brain damage and neurodegenerative disease, she said. Although clinical studies have suggested that stem cells have the potential to repair a damaged central nervous system, there are risks of complications from implantation, ectopic tissue formation and unwanted engraftment, Li said. Her team spent seven years studying alternatives, and discovered that exosomes secreted by mesenchymal stem cells found in human bone marrow or fat tissues contain substances that can facilitate cranial nerve regeneration and brain functional recovery. The exosomes are tiny vesicles that contain genetic information and biologically active substances, including proteins, RNA and other substances, and serve as mediators in cell-to-cell communication, she said. As exosomes do not have a nucleus and will not grow after implantation, using them in therapy might reduce many of the safety concerns related to the use of living stem cells, she said. After injecting such exosomes into brain-damaged mice, the team found that after a week the mice’s damaged nerve cells gradually grew synapses, and after a month the number of nerve cells in the damaged brain area was restored to about 60 percent, with the mice showing improvement in cognition, learning and memory. The
MORE THAN A BLANK: The Taipei Representative Office said the Web site had previously not even listed Taiwan among the nations with ties to Berlin
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said that it “cannot accept” the lack of a Republic of China flag on the Web site of the German Federal Foreign Office after a German reporter noticed that the flag was missing and brought it up at a news conference at the office in Berlin on Friday. The ministry said that it has asked the office to explain the absence of the nation’s flag from the page on the Web site listing the nations with which Germany has bilateral relations. The Web site showed a white box above the entry for Taiwan, in place of a flag. Taiwan is the only nation on the Web site not to have its national flag displayed. The office representing Taiwan in a different manner from how it represents other nations would cause prejudice and misunderstanding among people around the world, ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said in Taipei. Office deputy spokesman Rainer Breul on Friday told the reporter that the lack of the flag did not represent a policy change in Germany, which follows the “one China” principle. The site displayed a white box to differentiate Taiwan from nations with which Germany has formal diplomatic relations, Bruel said. The German Institute Taipei said that the office’s Web site has never displayed the flag and the suggestion that the flag was removed under pressure from China was inaccurate. The institute said that it hoped that the office could use an image symbolic of Taiwan, rather than simply leaving the space blank, but that officials who maintain the Web site can be slow in making changes. The Taipei Representative Office in the Federal Republic of Germany confirmed that the German Federal Foreign Office had never displayed the national flag on its Web site, adding that in the past the site had not even listed Taiwan among
NEW HONG KONG LAW: A visit to Beijing-friendly nations or those with weak judicial systems could leave people at risk of deportation to China, a former MAC official said
Beijing could request countries with which it has extradition agreements to deport Taiwanese to China to face criminal charges following the implementation of national security legislation for Hong Kong, a former Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) official warned yesterday. Some developing countries, and those close to China because of the Belt and Road Initiative, are likely to accommodate Beijing’s requests to extradite Taiwanese to China, said former deputy MAC minister Chen Ming-chi (陳明祺), who served from July 2, 2018, until May 20, and then returned to his former post as an assistant professor of sociology at National Tsing Hua University. While Taiwanese should be aware of this situation, they should not restrain their pursuit of freedom of speech, Chen said. “If we remain silent about the situation in Hong Kong, we would be playing into Beijing’s hands. The more China oppresses freedom of speech, the more we should voice our support for Hong Kong,” he said. The government should work with nations that share similar democratic values to speak up for Hong Kong’s freedom, he added. That would help limit the horrible effects that the Hong Kong national security legislation would have, he said. Tung Li-wen (董立文), a consultant for the Taiwan Thinktank, said that Taiwanese are in danger of being deported to China when they visit countries that have extradition agreements with Beijing. The risk of deportation would be even higher if they travel to pro-Beijing countries that have underdeveloped legal systems, he added. Extradition agreements generally do not apply to political cases and countries with well-established democratic systems would review extradition requests on a case-by-case basis, he said. “Taiwanese need to be extra careful when they visit countries that have extradition agreements with Hong Kong,” Tung said. An example of a person detained by Beijing abroad is Chinese-born Swedish citizen Gui Minhai (桂民海), one
Hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong residents lined up to cast ballots over the weekend in what the territory’s opposition camp said is a symbolic protest vote against tough national security legislation imposed by Beijing. The unofficial poll will decide the strongest pro-democracy candidates to contest Legislative Council elections in September, when they aim to ride a wave of anti-China sentiment stirred by the new legislation to seize control for the first time from pro-Beijing rivals. While the primaries are only for the opposition camp, observers are watching closely as they say the turnout would serve as a test of broader opposition to the package of legislation. “A high turnout will send a very strong signal to the international community, that we Hong Kongers never give up,” said Sunny Cheung (張崑陽), 24, one of a batch of aspiring young democrats out lobbying and giving stump speeches. “And that we still stand with the democratic camp, we still support democracy and freedom,” he said. Defying warnings from a senior Hong Kong official that the vote might fall foul of the National Security Law, residents young and old flocked to more than 250 polling stations across the territory on Saturday and yesterday, staffed by thousands of volunteers. Long lines formed down streets, in residential estates and at businesses-turned-polling stations, with people casting an online ballot on their mobile phones after having their identities verified. Organizers yesterday said that 500,000 people had voted by late afternoon in the territory of 7.5 million. The full turnout is expected to be announced this morning. Despite this tactical vote to maximize their chances, some democracy advocates fear authorities will try to stop some candidates from running in the council election. “They can arrest or disqualify any candidate they don’t like under the National Security Law without a proper reason,” said Owen Chow (鄒家成),
There will be no permanent sitting ban in the main hall of the Taipei Railway Station, the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) said yesterday, adding that it has placed smiley face decals on the floor to welcome all visitors. The agency in May said that it would make the temporary ban on sitting on the hall’s floor — imposed as part of disease-prevention measures amid the COVID-19 pandemic — permanent to ensure foot traffic inside the station would not be disrupted. The announcement infuriated many people, including migrant workers and their supporters, triggering sit-in protests in the hall. Opponents of the ban said the main hall is a public space that should be accessible to everyone, and the move would further restrict the number of places in Taipei for migrant workers to meet on their days off. The TRA held two seminars, on May 26 and June 3, to hear from civic groups, non-governmental organizations and experts on how the main hall should be used. Civic groups held their own meetings on June 11 and Tuesday, reaching a consensus that the main hall should remain open to the public and be used to facilitate civic participation, the TRA said. “To create a more user-friendly environment, our first step was to put 10 different smiley face decals on the floor to show that the main hall can be used for various purposes and all people are welcome to access the facility,” the agency said. The word “smile” was translated into 10 languages — Mandarin, English, Japanese, Korean, French, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Filipino, Thai and Malaysian — with the decals placed in squares next to the smiley faces to highlight the floor’s checkerboard pattern. All the decals had been placed by yesterday morning, it said. “The checkerboard pattern in the main hall has been around for many years, but the
The COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed more than 565,000 people out of nearly 13 million registered cases worldwide, has been accelerating sharply since the start of this month, according to a count carried out by Agence Presse-France from official sources. The three biggest daily worldwide increases in new cases were seen on Saturday (more than 230,000), Friday (more than 225,000) and Thursday (nearly 220,000). Since July 1, nearly 2.5 million new cases have been officially declared, a record level since the outbreak was first reported in China in December last year. The number of declared cases worldwide has doubled in just a month-and-a-half. The US (3,247,782 cases), Brazil (1,839,850), India (849,553), Russia (727,162) and Peru (322,710) account for more than half of the global total. Worldwide, a total of at least 12,736,737 infections, including 565,151 deaths, have been recorded. Europe is the most-affected continent in terms of fatalities, with 202,396 out of 3,355,128 cases, while the hardest-hit country — the US — has registered 134,815 deaths. Latin America and the Caribbean is the region where the disease is surging the most, with more than 76,000 new cases registered on Saturday, compared with just over 70,000 in the US and Canada, nearly 40,000 in Asia, 17,500 in Africa and 16,000 in Europe. South Africa is now the ninth-most affected nation, according to the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 dashboard tracker. It has 264,184 cases, including 3,971 deaths, accounting for more than 40 percent of all the reported cases in Africa. More than 30 percent of its cases are in Gauteng Province, which includes Johannesburg and Pretoria. Africa’s 54 countries have reported 577,904 cases, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported yesterday. The continent’s confirmed cases are concentrated in three other countries: Egypt (81,158), Nigeria (31,987) and Algeria (18,712). The number of actual cases in Africa is believed to be
A Beijing law professor who has been an outspoken critic of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was released yesterday after six days of detention, his friends said. Xu Zhangrun (許章潤), a 57-year-old constitutional law professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, returned home yesterday morning, but remained under surveillance and was not free to speak publicly about what happened, said one of his friends, who declined to be identified. Calls to the media departments of the Beijing police and the university seeking comment went unanswered. Beijing police never confirmed his detention. Xu first came to prominence in July 2018 for denouncing the removal of the two-term limit for China’s president, which will allow Xi to remain in office beyond his current second term. According to a text message circulated among Xu’s friends and seen by reporters, he was taken from his house in suburban Beijing on Monday last week by more than 20 policemen, who searched his house and confiscated his computer. According to Xu’s friends, police told his wife that he was being detained for allegedly soliciting prostitution during a trip to Chengdu, but at least two friends dismissed that allegation as character assassination. A friend believed that his detention was linked to a book he published last month in New York City that contained a collection of political essays criticizing the CCP’s rule under Xi, Bloomberg reported yesterday. Since the 2018 article, Xu has written other critiques of the party. At the peak of the nation’s COVID-19 outbreak in February, he wrote an article calling for freedom of speech. In May, before the delayed annual Chinese National People’s Congress meeting, he wrote an article accusing Xi of trying to bring the Cultural Revolution back to China. The US on Tuesday called for Xu’s release. “We are deeply concerned by the PRC’s detention of professor
CAUTION: Taiwanese should be alert, even if they have just liked or shared posts that would breach Beijing’s national security legislation for Hong Kong, the council said
Due to the newly implemented Hong Kong national security legislation, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has drawn up a list of what it described as “high-risk groups,” cautioning them not to travel to Hong Kong. People who support independence for Taiwan, Hong Kong, Tibet and Xinjiang; those who are critical of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the Hong Kong government and the “one country, two systems” concept; and those who donated to or voiced support for the Hong Kong anti-extradition bill movement are urged to refrain from visiting Hong Kong, the council said on its Web site. It released two posts on the matter, one on Friday and the other yesterday. The National Security Law was passed by the Chinese National People’s Congress last month and took effect on June 30, defining and prohibiting acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces. According to the council, the legislation is not limited to the territory of Hong Kong, its people, or aircraft and ships registered in Hong Kong, but is applicable worldwide, and the CCP is the sole entity that defines how it works. The legislation aims to prevent any person or organization from separating lands claimed by China from China; rebelling and overthrowing the CCP, or the Hong Kong special administrative government, including to prevent the destruction of governmental facilities; commiting acts of terrorism against people, transportation, sources of water, power, broadcasting and Internet networks; and colluding with foreign nations or powers against the interest and safety of the nation, which includes preventing the enactment of policies and laws, and inciting hatred against the CCP and the Hong Kong special administrative government, the council said. Any actions, such as liking Facebook posts, joining forums, forwarding posts or links, wearing apparel or holding flags, regardless of their directness or indirectness, or whether violence was used,
Hours after Hong Kong police searched the office of an independent political pollster, pro-democracy parties in Hong Kong yesterday held primary elections to choose candidates for upcoming legislative elections, despite warnings from government officials that it might be in breach of new national security legislation imposed by China. Pollster Robert Chung’s (鍾庭耀) Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (HKPORI) is a co-organizer of the primaries for Hong Kong’s pro-democracy camp, which aim to select candidates who will stand the best chance of achieving a 35-plus majority in Hong Kong Legislative Council polls in September. Chung said authorities arrived at his office and he “negotiated” with police to try to understand the basis for their search warrant. Police copied some information from computers, he said. Police told reporters that they had searched his office. “The police received a report from the public that the computer system of a polling organization was suspected of being hacked and some personal information of the public was leaked,” they said in a statement. “The investigation is still ongoing and no one has been arrested.” Chung told a news conference early yesterday that he was worried the information police obtained could be used in other investigations, but would do his best to protect his sources. He did not describe the nature of the data taken. “We obtained an oral promise that they wouldn’t use it for other investigations,” Chung said. Last year, Chung, who has repeatedly been criticized by pro-Beijing forces who question the accuracy of his polls, broke away from a polling operation he oversaw at the University of Hong Kong to set up his independent HKPORI. Former Hong Kong democracy lawmaker Au Nok-hin (區諾軒) said he believed the raid was related to the primary elections and was aimed at stoking fear in the community. Meanwhile, thousands lined up in the intense summer heat
LINGERING: Excluding the 227 statues of Chiang Kai-shek at the Cihu Memorial Sculpture Park, there are 848 statues of him in Taiwan, with Taipei having the most
Taiwan is still full of reminders of the authoritarian era under Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and his son Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), with a total of 1,814 sites, monuments and office spaces named in memory of them, an average of one for every 20km2 in the nation, a Transitional Justice Commission report released on Friday said. Taiwan has 1,235 monuments, statues, sculptures and large-frame portraits commemorating the two Chiangs, commission Chairwoman Yang Tsui (楊翠) said, adding that of those, 511 fall under the central government’s jurisdiction, and only 54 have been removed or renamed. There are also 579 memorial sites and office spaces named in remembrance of them. Excluding the 227 statues of Chiang Kai-shek and two of Chiang Ching-kuo at the Cihu Memorial Sculpture Park in Taoyuan’s Dasi District (大溪), there are 848 statues of Chiang Kai-shek in Taiwan, of which 511 belong to local governments and 337 belong to the central government, the report said. Taipei has the most statues of Chiang Kai-shek at 129, followed by Taoyuan at 112 and Taichung at 98, it added. For those under the central government’s jurisdiction, most of the statues dedicated to the two Chiangs are located in agencies under the Ministry of National Defense, the Veterans Affairs Council and the Ministry of Education, the report found, adding that they have 276 in total, or 82 percent. The three ministries also have the highest number of office spaces and sites dedicated to the two Chiangs at 143, or 89 percent. Of the 419 statues, office spaces and sites, only five have been removed or repurposed, and that was mainly done by universities, commission Deputy Chair Yeh Hung-ling (葉虹靈) said, adding that as the military and other schools have differing views on the removal of statues or monuments of the two Chiangs, discussions with the three ministries are ongoing. “There are
US President Donald Trump on Friday commuted the prison sentence of his longtime ally Roger Stone, shielding the veteran Republican consultant from 40 months behind bars. “Roger Stone is now a free man,” the White House said in a statement, days before he was to report to a federal prison to start serving his term. Trump’s action immediately brought new charges that the president intervenes freely in the US justice system to help friends and allies, and punish critics and perceived enemies. Stone, one of Trump’s oldest confidants, was convicted in November last year of lying to the US Congress, tampering with a witness and obstructing a US House of Representatives investigation into whether the Trump campaign conspired with Russia to help him win the 2016 election. The fiery White House statement reiterated Trump’s charge that then-US special counsel Robert Mueller investigated an alleged crime that was never committed. Therefore, Stone should never have been charged in the first place, it said. “The simple fact is that if the Special Counsel had not been pursuing an absolutely baseless investigation, Mr Stone would not be facing time in prison,” it said. In a statement to US media, Stone’s lawyer Grant Smith said that his client was “incredibly honored that President Trump used his awesome and unique power under the Constitution of the United States for this act of mercy.” The Trump administration had already intervened once to help Stone. After prosecutors recommended a prison term of seven to nine years, US Attorney General Bill Barr, who has been accused of acting like Trump’s personal lawyer, stepped in and called that excessive. All four prosecutors handling the case quit it and a newly appointed prosecutor recommended a prison term of three to four years for Stone. Stone was the sixth aide of Trump to be convicted of charges arising
Singapore’s long-ruling party yesterday retained power, but its support fell sharply, while the opposition made gains, in a general election held under the shadow of a COVID-19 outbreak. Voters put on masks and gloves and had to observe social distancing rules during a poll held as the city-state emerges from a lengthy lockdown. Singapore has seen large virus outbreaks in dormitories housing low-paid foreign workers, but with new infections slowing and authorities easing a partial lockdown, the government pushed ahead with the poll. The People’s Action Party (PAP), which has ruled Singapore for six decades, was always assured of victory, and won 83 of 93 parliamentary seats up for grabs and 61.2 percent of the popular vote. However, that was pointedly down from the nearly 70 percent of the vote it won in the country’s last election in 2015, while the opposition Workers’ Party picked up 10 seats — its best-ever showing at an election. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍), visibly disappointed, said the “percentage of the popular vote is not as high as I had hoped.” “The results reflect the pain and uncertainty that Singaporeans feel in this crisis — the loss of income, the anxiety about jobs,” he told a news conference. “This was not a feel-good election.” Singapore has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and is forecast to be heading for its worst recession since independence in 1965. The PAP’s share of the popular vote was close to its lowest ever level of 60.1 percent in the 2011 election. Yet for the Workers’ Party, which previously held just six seats, the results felt like a victory. Raucous celebrations erupted in one of the party’s strongholds, with people cheering and waving flags. “I’m very grateful to all the voters, I’m also very humbled,” party leader Pritam Singh said. “I think there’s a
IN THE PIPELINE: The Ministry of National Defense said the sale, expected to take effect in one month, would be the seventh arms sale under the Trump administration
The government yesterday thanked the US for approving the possible sale of a US$620 million missile repair and recertification package to Taiwan. The US Department of State has approved the sale of a package to recertify Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missiles to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) in Washington for an estimated US$620 million, the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a news release on Thursday. The agency has delivered the required certification to the US Congress, notifying it of the possible sale, it added. The TECRO had requested to buy an upgrade package that would support an operational life of 30 years for its PAC-3 missiles, including air transportation services for missile processing, ground support equipment, and US government and contractor technical and logistical support, it said. The proposed sale is in line with US law and policy, and serves its “national, economic and security interests by supporting the recipient’s continuing efforts to modernize its armed forces and to maintain a credible defensive capability,” it said. “The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not alter the basic military balance in the region,” the agency said. Lockheed Martin would be the primary contractor, it added. The proposed sale, which is expected to take effect in one month, would be the seventh arms sale to Taiwan by US President Donald Trump’s administration, the Ministry of National Defense said in a statement yesterday. The US, in line with its Taiwan Relations Act and “six assurances,” continues to provide Taiwan with defensive weapons, and the missile refurbishment package would boost Taiwan’s self-defense capabilities, it said, thanking the US for the decision. As President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) mentioned in her second inaugural speech, Taiwan has over the past four years worked to reform its national defense sector, as well as participate on the global stage, the Ministry
REAL CONSEQUENCES: The Uighur Human Rights Project hailed the sanctions and urged other countries to follow suit, saying: ‘This comes at the 11th hour for Uighurs’
China yesterday said it would impose tit-for-tat measures after the US slapped sanctions on Chinese officials for their involvement in a crackdown on Muslim minorities, raising tensions between the superpowers. The two countries have traded barbs and sanctions on a slew of issues since US President Donald Trump took office, from trade to more recent spats over the COVID-19 pandemic, security legislation in Hong Kong, and Chinese policies in Tibet and Xinjiang. The latest Chinese response followed a US announcement of visa bans and an assets freeze on three officials, including Chen Quanguo (陳全國), the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) chief in Xinjiang and architect of Beijing’s policies against restive minorities. “The US actions seriously interfere in China’s internal affairs, seriously violate the basic norms of international relations, and seriously damage China-US relations,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian (趙立堅) said in a briefing. “China has decided to impose reciprocal measures against the relevant US institutions and individuals who behave badly on issues related to Xinjiang,” Zhao said, without providing details about the sanctions. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday said that Washington was acting against “horrific and systematic abuses” in Xinjiang, including forced labor, mass detention and involuntary population control. The back-and-forth over Xinjiang comes just days after the two countries imposed visa restrictions on each other over their disagreement on Tibet. Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) on Thursday blamed the rising tensions on “McCarthy-style paranoia” in the US. Witnesses and human rights groups say that China has rounded up more than 1 million Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang in a vast brainwashing campaign aimed at forcibly homogenizing minorities into the nation’s Han majority. Pompeo in a conference call with reporters on Thursday called the situation “the stain of the century” and has previously drawn parallels with the Holocaust. Beijing said
Presidential Office Secretary-General Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) yesterday said that he would file a defamation suit against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers if they continue to insinuate that he interceded on behalf of former Tang Eng Iron Works Co (唐榮鐵工廠) general manager Chang Chung-chieh (張仲傑), who is the subject of four conflict of interest probes. KMT Legislator Yosi Takun at a news conference on Wednesday said that Vice Premier Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津), when he was minister of economic affairs, shielded Chang, because Chang is Su’s nephew. Citing a “confidential” document signed by Shen and addressed to Tang Eng, Yosi said that the partially state-owned firm in 2017 arranged an employee trip through the Chu Chun Travel Service (巨群旅行), which is owned by Chang’s second son. Yosi said that another conflict of interest happened when Yuan Shin Co (源新科貿), where Chang’s eldest son served as a manager in 2016 and 2017, participated in a call for bids by Tang Eng. From 2015 to last year, Tang Eng contracted with Chia-Yu Dressing Co (佳侑製衣), a subsidiary of a firm owned by Chang’s wife, to make its employee uniforms, he added. Hong Yun International Co (紅雲國際) was this year able to purchase 3,000 tonnes of stainless steel from Tang Eng at below market prices because the owner is purportedly friends with Chang, Yosi said. The KMT has linked Chang’s actions to Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee deputy chairwoman Shih Chin-fang (施錦芳), who was nominated by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) as a Control Yuan member and was Su’s aide when he was Pingtung County commissioner. On the same day, Chang tendered his resignation, which Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) approved. The document, which cannot be declassified until December 2025, reportedly shows that Shen asked Tang Eng to “make improvements” to its corporate governance, without meting out any punishment. Citing Shen, Executive Yuan
Twenty people were detained for questioning after the National Immigration Agency and law enforcement raided operations allegedly coercing foreign women into prostitution, police said yesterday. Those questioned were suspected members of a prostitution ring led by a man surnamed Cheng (程), 42, and his brother, who allegedly controlled women from the Ukraine, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries, the police said. After receiving tip-offs, the Taoyuan Prosecutors’ Office launched an investigation and placed the Cheng brothers under surveillance, said prosecutor Yeh Yi-fa (葉益發), who is in charge of the investigation, adding that the raids took place in Taipei and Taoyuan on Wednesday and Thursday. “Fourteen women who the Cheng brothers and their associates forced to work as prostitutes were rescued in the operation,” Yeh said, adding that there were 10 Thai nationals, one Ukrainian and one Taiwanese among the women. Cash and drugs were seized, including 78 small bags of “narcotic coffee” — a mix of narcotics and new synthetic stimulants — 10 bags of ketamine pills and four of cannabis, Yeh said. The brothers allegedly worked with human smugglers, or “snakeheads,” in other countries to bring the women into Taiwan, he said. Some entered on tourist visas or with forged documents after being promised good money, while others were forced to work as prostitutes after their documents were confiscated, Yeh said. The investigation showed that the elder brother’s girlfriend, surnamed Lin (林), allegedly managed the money, as well as the women’s accommodations and meals, while other people helped manage the women and doubled as drivers to take them to motel rooms in Taoyuan and Taipei. The Cheng brothers and Lin are likely to be charged with the operation of a prostitution business, possession of narcotics, as well as breaches of the Human Trafficking Prevention Act (人口販運防制法) and related charges, Yeh said. Ring members advertised on social
Voting in Singapore’s election was extended yesterday, after disease prevention measures led to long lines and delays at polling stations. Voting is mandatory in the affluent city-state, but many fretted about the risks as they lined up in masks for as long as an hour to cast their ballots, with jobs at the top of their agenda as the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to cause Singapore’s worst-ever recession. The People’s Action Party (PAP), in power since independence in 1965, is expected by analysts to carry Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) to another comfortable, and probably final, victory. All around the city-state, election officials wearing visors enforced distancing rules and took voters’ temperatures. The delays convinced the election authority to drop a requirement for voters to wear gloves and by evening it had extended voting by two hours to 10pm. Since a COVID-19 lockdown eased last month after two months, the number of new daily cases has crept back into double figures, excluding the migrant workers living in dormitories where infection rates have been far higher. “This is a very dangerous time to hold an election, even though many precautions were taken,” Mayank Goel, 21, a biomedical engineering student, said after voting. Social distancing rules constrained campaigning and no party rallies were allowed, but opposition parties and rights groups still warned that holding the election now could distract from government efforts to tackle the virus. The poll is widely seen as a test of views on the government’s response to the crisis and the next generation of leaders, and the results will be closely watched, as even small shifts in the PAP’s popularity can lead to major policy changes. Organizers had hoped for fast, hygienic voting to minimize risks. Voters were given a recommended time slot and inside the polling stations, they had to self-scan identity cards and sanitize
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