HK’s ‘Apple Daily’ announces its final edition amid freeze

Hong Kong newspaper the Apple Daily yesterday announced that it is to print its final edition after authorities froze its assets using the National Security Law, silencing the territory’s most China critical media firm. Journalists outside the paper’s headquarters said that they planned to print 1 million copies overnight — a staggering number given Hong Kong’s population of 7.5 million. They spoke of their heartbreak at the paper’s closure and loss of about 1,000 jobs. “I have tens of thousands of words in my heart, but I am speechless at this moment,” said Ip Yut-kin (葉一堅), chairman of the paper’s parent company, Next Digital Ltd (壹傳媒). The Apple Daily has long been a thorn in Beijing’s side, with unapologetic support for Hong Kong’s democracy movement and criticism of China’s authoritarian leaders. Those same leaders have used the security legislation to bring about its rapid demise. Owner Jimmy Lai (黎智英), who is in jail for attending democracy protests, was among the first to be charged under the law after its imposition last year. The final chapter of the 26-year-old paper was written over the past week, when authorities deployed the security law to raid the newsroom, arrest senior executives and freeze its assets. That last move crippled the paper’s ability to conduct business and pay staff. Apple Daily announced its closure “out of consideration for the safety of its staff.” Its Web site was to go offline overnight. Lai, editor-in-chief Ryan Law (羅偉光) and Next Digital chief executive officer Cheung Kim-hung (張劍虹) have been charged with colluding with foreign forces to undermine China’s national security and remanded into custody. Yeung Ching-kee (楊清奇), one of the paper’s top columnists, was arrested yesterday on the same charge. “Every journalist in Hong Kong now has a metaphorical gun pointed at their heads,” said Sharron Fast, a lecturer at the University of Hong Kong’s journalism school. “When the

Groups urge boycott of Beijing Games

PULLOUT: Allowing Beijing to host the Winter Olympics next year would give it a platform to spread its totalitarian and repressive ideas, human rights advocates said

Condemning China’s repression of human rights in Tibet, Xinjiang and Hong Kong, a coalition of 16 advocacy groups yesterday called for a boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. The non-governmental organizations urged the Legislative Yuan to join 11 Western nations and parliaments, and pass a resolution calling on the government to withdraw from the Beijing Games. The Taiwan-based Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee should refrain from sending athletes to the winter games and change its name to Taiwan Olympic Committee, they said in a statement. The International Olympic Committee should seek another venue other than Beijing for the Games, while the public should boycott any brands that sponsor the event, they said. China’s behavior toward Taiwan and ethnic minorities shows that it does not care to be a good neighbor or to abide by the rule of law, Taiwan Association for Human Rights secretary-general Shih Yi-hsiang (施逸翔) told a virtual news conference. Allowing China to host the Games on the centennial of the Chinese Communist Party’s founding would embolden Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), as the Munich Games did with Hitler, New School for Democracy chairman Tseng Chien-yuan (曾建元) said. China’s tyrannical elimination of general elections in Hong Kong has made it impossible for the territory’s residents to feel pride in Chinese athletes’ participation in the Games, he said. “Having athletes compete peacefully inside a venue while the most unsportsmanlike enslavement of an entire society is being played outside would be the ultimate irony,” he said. China has instituted a surveillance system to transform the Xinjiang region into a prison without walls for an entire population, Taiwan East Turkestan Association president He Chao-tung (何朝棟) said. Taiwan should stand up to China’s saber-rattling, and the International Olympic Committee should support human rights and the people and countries being oppressed by Beijing, He said. China’s speech and conduct are unbecoming of the

By Chen Yu-fu and Jonathan Chin

Vaccine eligibility set to be expanded

POLICY U-TURN: Specialists have urged the center to allow pregnant women receive an mRNA vaccine, as foreign studies have suggested they are safer

Eligibility for COVID-19 vaccination is to be expanded to the top eight priority groups on Thursday next week, the The Central Epidemic Command Center announced yesterday. The seventh priority group comprises workers who maintain social security and normal societal functions, which includes examination staff, teachers, military personnel and national security staff, wholesale market frontline workers and frontline journalists. It also includes staff working on essential national infrastructure at Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp and the Taiwan Railways Administration; oil, gas, water and power supply facilities; and communication infrastructure companies. Post office clerks, disease prevention personnel at science parks, childcare workers and household registration system technicians are also included in the group. In high-risk areas — Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan — taxi drivers, delivery service workers, bus drivers, truck drivers, traditional market vendors, and supermarket and convenience store clerks are also to be included in the seventh priority group. The eighth priority group comprises people aged 65 to 74 and an estimated 1.985 million people are included in the group, data showed. Frontline funeral workers are to be added to the second priority group and correctional facility workers to the fifth priority group, the center said. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said the respective authorities would be required to submit lists of names of eligible vaccine recipients in the seventh group, along with their plans for vaccination, to the center for approval. With more than 2 million doses of the Moderna vaccine undergoing testing, the first distribution to local governments would be about 1.1 million doses, Chen said. The distribution would be based on the number of unvaccinated personnel in the fifth priority group — residential long-term care facility workers and residents, and correctional facility workers, those who have already received a dose of the Moderna vaccine and 30 percent

By Lee I-chia

CECC reports 78 new local cases

EXTREMELY REGRETTABLE: The CECC also reported six deaths — three men and three women who were aged 50 to 90 and who all had underlying health conditions

The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported 78 new local COVID-19 infections and six deaths, while also announcing that all people who are placed under home isolation or home quarantine must be tested before ending isolation or quarantine, effective immediately. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said the locally transmitted cases are 35 males and 43 females, aged under five to over 90, and they began having symptoms between Monday last week and Monday. Most of the cases were reported in New Taipei City and Taipei, with 43 and 25 cases respectively, he said, adding that there were three cases in Nantou County, two in Keelung, and one each in Taoyuan and Taichung, as well as Hsinchu, Miaoli and Changhua counties. Of the 12,806 people infected with COVID-19 between May 11 and Sunday, 8,087, or 63.1 percent, had been released from isolation, Chen said. It was relatively good news that the number of deaths reported fell to six yesterday, he said, adding that although each loss of life is extremely regrettable, the reduction in the number of deaths indicates that medical capacity is stable and under control. The six deaths were three men and three women who were aged 50 to 90 and who all had underlying health conditions, Chen said. Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division, said that among the deaths, two were residents of a nursing home in Taipei’s Shilin District (士林), where a cluster of 47 infections was confirmed this week. The two residents both had hypertension and were on dialysis, he said, adding that one was a woman in her 50s who was the first confirmed case at the facility. She began having symptoms on June 8 and was hospitalized the next day, he added. The other

By Lee I-chia

Lithuania donates COVID-19 vaccines to Taiwan

Lithuania will donate 20,000 doses of AstraZeneca Plc COVID-19 vaccine to Taiwan, its government said on Tuesday, after angering China in March by saying it would open a trade representative office on the island this year. The vaccines were donated after a June 15 request for help from Taipei’s mission in neighbouring Latvia, the Lithuanian health ministry said in a submission to the government. They will be transferred by the end of September. “We’d like to do more, but we do what we can,” Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said during a government meeting that was broadcast in Lithuania. Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) spokesman Xavier Chang (張惇涵) office hailed the donation, adding: “This friendship from the Baltic Sea is precious.” Taiwan had given Lithuania 100,000 medical-grade face masks last year when the coronavirus pandemic was spreading around the world, he said. Taiwan is trying to speed up a vaccination programme that has been hobbled by supply delays. It got a major boost this month when Japan donated 1.24 million AstraZeneca shots, followed on Sunday by 2.5 million Moderna Inc doses from the United States. Infection numbers are now falling on the island after a rise since last month. Lithuania’s government said last month it would also donate 100,000 vaccine doses to Ukraine, 15,000 to Georgia and 11,000 to Moldova.

Taipei to step up testing at wholesale markets: Ko

As of yesterday, a total of 54 people had tested positive in a COVID-19 cluster infection associated with Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Co that was first reported on May 14. Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) on Monday said that the city this week would vaccinate employees of the company, partner food producers and wholesalers, or about 4,000 people. The Council of Agriculture on Monday said that beginning tomorrow, it would require a negative COVID-19 test result for people entering the Taipei First Wholesale Fruit and Vegetable Market, and the Taipei Second Wholesale Fruit and Vegetable Market. Ko at a news conference said that many of the people at the two wholesale markets at any given time are from areas outside of Taipei. Only half of those in the cluster are Taipei residents and authorities are not yet sure if they were infected at the markets, he said. All 284 people tested yesterday at the first market were negative, as well as 83 people tested at the second market, Ko said, adding that there was no cause for public alarm. MORE TESTING Starting today, the city is to test 1,000 people associated with the company each day at three testing stations — Taipei Municipal Wanda Elementary School, Taipei City Hospital’s Renai branch and Taipei City Hospital’s Zhongxing branch, he said. As a preventive measure, the city would also be vaccinating 10,540 people who work at the city’s major meat, fish, flower and wet markets, he added. Meanwhile, the New Taipei City Government yesterday said that to prevent the cluster infection at the company from spreading to New Taipei City Fruit and Vegetable Marketing Co, it has also set up testing stations at markets in the city’s Sanchong (三重) and Banciao (板橋) districts. Anyone entering the markets would need to provide a negative test result, it said. Additional reporting by Lai Hsiao-tung

By Yang Yuan-ting, Cheng Ming-hsiang and William Hetherington

Lam won’t say how media can avoid arrest

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) has refused to clarify how journalists can avoid breaking the vaguely defined National Security Law following the raid and prosecution of journalists at pro-democracy newspaper the Apple Daily. Lam at a regular weekly news conference yesterday defended the arrest of senior Apple Daily executives under the legislation — two of whom have been charged with conspiracy to collude with a foreign nation — as well as the raid of its newsroom and the freezing of its assets. The Apple Daily has said it would cease online publication this week unless its assets are unfrozen. It closed its English edition yesterday. Lam denied it was an attack on press freedom and said foreign criticism of the police operation, including from rights groups and governments, was simply an attempt to recast acts that endangered national security. “Don’t try to underplay the significance of breaching the National Security Law and don’t try to beautify these acts of endangering national security,” Lam said. “Don’t try to accuse the Hong Kong authorities of using the National Security Law to suppress the media or stifle freedom of expression.” Authorities said the raid and arrests related to more than 30 articles that called for foreign sanctions against the Hong Kong and Chinese governments. Authorities have refused to specify the articles in question, or say whether they were news or opinion. Authorities have repeatedly refused to tell media how their work might breach the vaguely defined legislation, including through publishing quotes, comments or analysis by third parties. Lam said that “normal journalistic work would not endanger national security.” She said the law was “very well defined” and “embraced all the important legal concepts,” but again gave no explanation of how it applied specifically to journalism. “I believe media friends have the ability to grasp what kind of activities endanger national security,”

By Helen Davidson

Daily local case count falls below 100

VULNERABLE: The CECC has been moving older infected people or those with underlying health conditions, who were in isolation, to hospitals for better health monitoring

The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported 75 locally transmitted COVID-19 infections, the lowest daily count since the nationwide level 3 alert was issued last month. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said the 75 local infections are 35 males and 40 females, aged from under five to over 80, and they began experiencing symptoms between June 8 and Sunday. New Taipei City reported 38 cases, followed by Taipei with 22, Taoyuan with five, Miaoli County with three, Keelung and Taichung with two each, and Kaohsiung, Yunlin County and Changhua County with one each, CECC data showed. The CECC also reported 20 deaths, 14 men and six women, who were aged from their 50s to their 90s, all of whom had underlying health conditions. Of the 15 cases reported outside of Taipei and New Taipei City, the infection sources of all the cases had been identified, while contact tracing was being conducted. While the situation is improving, wearing masks, washing hands and use of sanitizer must continue, Chen said. The number of deaths remains high, but should fall in the coming days, he said. Asked if the level 3 alert could be lowered on Monday next week, Chen said the issue is being discussed by various ministries and that the CECC would make an announcement when a decision is reached. Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division, said that 11 of the 20 people who died had started having symptoms last month, and that the period between the onset of symptoms and death has extended to an average of 17 days. Among the confirmed cases reported after April 20, 2,373 people, or 18.4 percent, had suffered severe pneumonia or acute respiratory distress syndrome, Lo said, adding that 1,592 of them were aged

By Lee I-chia

Pregnant women to be prioritized

The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday said that pregnant women would be added to the sixth priority group for COVID-19 vaccinations, and they would be eligible along with the seventh and eighth priority groups in the next round of vaccine distribution. After the second shipment of the purchased Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, about 240,000 doses, arrived on Friday last week, another batch of 2.5 million doses, donated by the US government, arrived on Sunday. The two batches are undergoing Food and Drug Administration testing. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, on Sunday said that the eligibility of vaccine recipients would be further expanded to speed up the vaccination program. “Pregnant women and people aged 65 and older are certain to be included in the next round of vaccinations,” Chen said yesterday. Chen said pregnant women would be included in the sixth priority group with people aged 75 and older, and that they would be allowed to choose which vaccine they wish to receive. Pregnant women are advised to consult with their doctor, as well as assess the risks and benefits, before getting vaccinated, he said. As of yesterday, the top six priority groups were eligible to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine, while only the top three priority groups were eligible for the Moderna vaccine. Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is CECC spokesman, said an Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meeting was held on Sunday to revise the priority list. The eighth to 10th priority groups were added to the list, with people aged 65 to 74 as the eighth group; adults aged 19 to 64 with underlying health conditions that have higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19 and people with rare or catastrophic illness as the ninth group; and adults aged 50 to 64 as the 10th group. There

By Lee I-chia

‘Apple Daily’ may shut this week

NO WAGES: Mark Simon, a senior aide to Jimmy Lai, said that the Hong Kong authorities would not let the newspaper pay its reporters, other staff and vendors

Hong Kong’s Apple Daily yesterday said that its board would decide whether to close the publication at their next meeting on Friday, after an asset freeze by authorities using the National Security Law left the outspoken media group unable to pay its employees. Apple Daily has long been a thorn in Beijing’s side, with unapologetic support for the territory’s democracy movement and caustic criticism of China’s authoritarian leaders. Its owner Jimmy Lai (黎智英) is in jail and was among the first to be charged under the security law after its imposition by Beijing last year. Its chief editor and chief executive were detained last week and its finances frozen under the legislation, which Beijing has used to stamp out dissent in Hong Kong. The remaining board members met yesterday to discuss the newspaper’s future. “The board ... decided to meet again on Friday to decide whether to terminate Apple Daily,” the paper said in a short push notification to readers. The newspaper’s closure would shutter one of the few remaining Hong Kong dailies willing to be critical of China’s authoritarian leaders. It would also be a huge victory for the authorities, who have made no secret of their desire to see the outlet silenced. In an interview with CNN, Mark Simon, a senior aide to Lai, said that last week’s freeze order had crippled the newspaper’s ability to do business. “Our problem at Apple Daily is not that we don’t have funds, we have US$50 million in the bank,” Simon said. “Our problem is the secretary of security and the police will not let us pay our reporters, they will not let us pay our staff and they will not let us pay our vendors. They have locked up our accounts.” Lai, 73, is in prison for attending democracy protests in 2019. He faces a life sentence if

Up to 10,000 fans at Olympic events

Up to 10,000 fans are to be allowed at events at the Tokyo Olympics, organizers said yesterday, adding that the Games could be moved behind closed doors if COVID-19 infections surge. The decision, just weeks before the opening ceremony, ends months of speculation about whether domestic spectators would be able to attend the Games. Overseas fans were banned in March. A lottery is to determine which existing holders of tickets can attend a Games that would be unlike any other, with cheering banned, masks mandatory and fans told to go straight home after events. “In light of the government’s restrictions on public events, the spectator limit for the Olympic Games will be set at 50 percent of venue capacity, up to a maximum of 10,000 people in all venues,” organizers said in a statement. A decision on spectators at the Paralympics has been delayed until July 16, a week before the Olympics open. Officials left open the possibility of a reversal of policy if COVID-19 infections rebound. Tokyo was under a state of emergency until Sunday. “If there should be major dramatic change in the infection situation, we may need to revisit this matter among ourselves and we may need to consider the option of having no spectators in the venues,” Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said. Senior medical experts, including top advisers to the government, have said holding the Games behind closed doors would be “ideal” from a health perspective. They fear crowds of fans could fuel a new surge in infections in a nation still racing to vaccinate its residents. Organizers said that it was unlikely that negative COVID-19 tests would be required to attend. International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach, speaking before the announcement, said that he was “absolutely sure that it will be a decision to best protect the Japanese people and all participants.” There is some wiggle

US is ready for North Korea talks ‘anytime’: envoy

US President Joe Biden’s point man for North Korea yesterday said that the US was ready for talks “anywhere, anytime” with Pyongyang, providing a strong signal Washington is prepared to revive a stagnant disarmament dialogue. US Special Representative for North Korea Sung Kim said after discussions in Seoul with South Korean Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affair Noh Kyu-duk and Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau Director-General Takehiro Funakoshi that the Biden administration’s policy calls for “a calibrated, practical approach,” which includes possible diplomacy with North Korea. “We continue to hope that the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] will respond positively to our outreach and our offer to meet anywhere, anytime, without preconditions,” Kim said. He also said that the US is to press ahead with UN sanctions put in place to punish North Korea for its tests of nuclear devices and missiles that could carry warheads to the US mainland. The meeting was the first among the envoys since Biden took office. It came just days after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said that the nation is ready for “both dialogue and confrontation,” offering the highest-level opening for discussions since Biden replaced former US president Donald Trump, who met Kim Jong-un three times. However, Kim Jong-un tempered his comments at a meeting of his ruling party with a call to “get fully prepared for confrontation in order to protect the dignity of our state and its interests.” “We took note of Chairman Kim’s recent statement, referring to both dialogue and confrontation. We will be prepared for either,” Sung Kim said ahead of the three-way meeting. “It’s a good sign that Sung Kim’s reiterating Washington’s existing position that it is, and has always been, ready to talk. The problem is North Korea doesn’t seem ready,” said Kim Du-yeon, an

COVID-19: US donation of Moderna shots arrives

HELPING HAND: Vaccine eligibility can likely be widened to cover pregnant women now that the nation has more vaccine doses than it planned for, Chen Shih-chung said

Taiwan yesterday received a shipment of 2.5 million COVID-19 vaccine doses donated by the US, obtaining its largest single batch of vaccines since the COVID-19 pandemic began early last year. A cargo plane of Taiwanese national carrier China Airlines Ltd (中華航空) carrying the Moderna Inc vaccines landed at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at about 4:30pm, after leaving Memphis, Tennessee, early on Saturday, US time. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) and American Institute in Taiwan Director Brent Christensen were at the airport to welcome the plane. The vaccines were transported to a cold chain logistics center, where they would be inspected by health authorities before being cleared for distribution, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said. The US on June 6 pledged to send 750,000 Moderna vaccine doses to Taiwan and on Saturday said it was increasing the number to 2.5 million. Chen, who heads the center, told a news conference earlier yesterday that vaccine eligibility would likely be expanded to cover pregnant women and a wider age group, as more doses than planned have arrived. Eligibility for the Moderna vaccine is currently limited to the top three groups in the vaccination priority list. Pregnant women would not be forced to choose a certain brand of vaccine and they should discuss with their doctor which vaccine would be the best for them, Chen said. The CECC would also consider adding more occupations to the seventh priority group — “essential workers for maintaining national security and normal societal functions” — as well as including people aged 65 or older in the vaccination program. “We are grateful to the US government for giving 2.5 million doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to Taiwan,” Chen said. “The US lending a helping hand in our time of need will allow us to accelerate vaccination.” Taiwan and the US last year signed a

By Lee I-chia

COVID-19: Daily domestic case count drops to 107, CECC says

The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported 107 locally transmitted COVID-19 cases and 11 deaths. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said the local infections are 57 males and 50 females, from under the age of five to over 100, and they began experiencing symptoms from June 4 to Saturday. The majority of them were reported in New Taipei City, with 44 cases, followed by Taipei with 31, Taoyuan with 16, Taichung with six, Hsinchu County with four, Miaoli County with three, and Keelung, and Changhua and Yilan counties with one case each, he said. Of the 12,572 confirmed cases reported from May 11 to Friday, 7,496 people, or 59.6 percent, have been released from isolation, Chen said. The 11 deaths consist of six men and five women in their 40s to 90s, all of whom had underlying health conditions, CECC data showed. Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy chief of the CECC’s medical response division, said two of the people who died were younger, but had underlying health conditions. One was a woman in her 40s, who tested positive along with four family members, he said, adding that she was hospitalized from late last month to last week and required intubation and invasive ventilation, but died of respiratory failure and gastrointestinal bleeding. The other was a man in his 50s, who had chronic renal failure and was on peritoneal dialysis, Lo said, adding that he also had diabetes, hypertension and had had a heart attack. He tested positive earlier this month, but died of kidney disease and pneumonia, Lo said. He said that about half of those who had died began experiencing symptoms or were diagnosed with COVID-19 last month, so more deaths are expected to be reported this week, but as the case count has declined

By Lee I-chia

COVID-19: Third pandemic wave hits as Brazil surpasses half-million virus deaths

Brazil on Saturday became the second country after the US to surpass 500,000 COVID-19 deaths as the South American giant grapples with a third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Brazilian Minister of Health Marcelo Queiroga wrote on Twitter: “500,000 lives lost due to the pandemic that affects our Brazil and the world.” The Brazilian Ministry of Health reported 500,800 deaths, including 2,301 in the past 24 hours, a number that many experts say underestimates the real toll from the pandemic. Last week, the average number of daily deaths surpassed 2,000 for the first time since May 10. “The third wave is arriving, there’s already a change in the case and death curves,” Ethel Maciel, an epidemiologist from Espirito Santo University, told reporters. “Our vaccination [program], which could make a difference, is slow and there are no signs of restrictive measures, quite the contrary.” In large cities, life seems almost back to normal, with restaurants, bars and shops open, and many people in the streets not wearing masks. Yet the situation is critical in 19 of Brazil’s 27 states, with more than 80 percent occupancy of intensive care beds. In nine of those states it is more than 90 percent. The “second wave,” from January to April this year, was particularly deadly. The number of deaths increased exponentially with the arrival of the Gamma virus variant that originated in Manaus, in the north of Brazil. It gradually began to fall last month, thanks in part to the closure of businesses when the pandemic was at its worst. However, many epidemiologists believe lockdown restrictions were lifted too soon at a time when daily deaths were still up around the 2,000 mark. Contrary to what has been seen in Europe, there has been no real trough between the different waves in Brazil. “I don’t know if it’s a third wave ... it seems we

Seven officials recalled from TECO Hong Kong

‘ONE CHINA’ PRESSURE: Following the return of seven officials, only Economy Division Director Ni Po-chia remains at the Hong Kong office, and his visa is to expire next month

Seven of the remaining eight personnel at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Hong Kong returned home yesterday after being ordered by the Hong Kong government to leave the territory by today after failing to obtain work visas. The governments of Hong Kong and Macau suspended the operations of their representative offices in Taipei on May 18 and June 19 respectively, saying that Taiwanese authorities did not grant work visas to their employees. Of the office’s five division heads, only Economy Division Director Ni Po-chia (倪伯嘉) remains, although his visa is to expire at the end of next month. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) in a statement yesterday said: “Since July 2018, the Hong Kong government has repeatedly set unreasonable political conditions whenever our employees applied for work visas, including requiring them to sign a pledge to observe the ‘one China’ policy. This made it impossible for our employees to assume office or continue to stay in Hong Kong. As such, there would be an adjustment in the businesses handled by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Hong Kong, starting June 21,” the council said. “Using the ‘one China’ policy as a barrier, Beijing and Hong Kong have disrupted staff rotation and operations at Taiwan’s office in Hong Kong. They unilaterally contravened terms of the agreement between Taiwan and Hong Kong that was signed in 2011. They are solely responsible for damaging Taiwan-Hong Kong relations, and hurting the welfare and interests of people in Taiwan and in Hong Kong,” it added. “We adamantly refuse to accept the political suppression from Beijing and the Hong Kong government to force our employees to sign a ‘one China’ pledge, and severely warn and condemn them for the unreasonable move,” the council said. It thanked the employees at the office for carrying on

By Shelley Shan

Far-right eyes gains as French vote in regional elections

France yesterday went to the polls for the first round of regional elections that could see Marine Le Pen’s far-right party make gains and step further into the political mainstream. The election would see new assemblies elected for mainland France’s 13 regions and 96 departments, with Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) tipped to win at least one region for the first time in what would be a major coup. Le Pen is not standing as a candidate, but she has been campaigning hard ahead of presidential elections next year that surveys show could end up being a close race between her and centrist French President Emmanuel Macron. “What would be great for her [Le Pen], and would spark some momentum in the pre-presidential campaign, would be if the National Rally won a region,” Stephane Zumsteeg from the Ipsos polling firm told reporters. Although far-right politicians preside over a handful of towns, running a region with a budget of billions of euros and powers over schools, transport and economic development would lend it the sort of legitimacy that Le Pen craves, analysts have said. The one most likely to tip was the southeastern Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur — home to Marseille, Saint-Tropez and Cannes — where the RN is fronted by Thierry Mariani, a former minister who defected from the center-right Republicans party. The election is to be held over two consecutive Sundays, with a second run-off vote on Sunday necessary unless parties win more than 50 percent in the first round. Analysts have said that results in many regions would be driven by local dynamics and a high abstention rate, limiting how much they should be seen as indicators for the larger political picture in France. However, the outcome would inevitably shape the narrative in the coming weeks, particularly with regard to the strength and electability of Le Pen,