Three US congressional members have written to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to protest plans to tear down two shortwave radio towers in Yunlin County’s Huwei Township (虎尾) and in Greater Tainan.
They say the towers — at least partly built with US funds — may still be needed to broadcast uncensored news into China.
The towers are being used by Falun Gong and its media organization, the Sound of Hope Radio Network, to transmit broadcasts that are critical of the Chinese government and its human rights record.
Photo: Taipei Times
A statement issued by Falun Gong in Washington on Monday said that Radio Taiwan International (RTI) had already begun tearing down the towers in Greater Tainan and that requests from the US Congress to stop the demolition were being ignored.
The statement said that Beijing was putting “huge pressure” on Taiwan to stop shortwave broadcasts aimed at China.
It said that RTI had changed its mission from spreading “freedom and democracy to China” to marketing and promoting Taiwan.
The statement said the towers were built in the 1960s and 1970s, several with funding from the US military.
“RTI plans to close two major radio facilities, Huwei and Tainan substations,” it said.
It said the two radio stations had 28 shortwave radio towers equipped with antennae with a transmission power of at least 2,700 kilowatts and could cover all of China.
“The Chinese Communist Party is very scared about the power of these towers and they want the towers to be demolished,” the statement signed by Sound of Hope Radio Network president Allen Zeng said.
“Any plan to tear down these facilities is premature and should be suspended pending analysis of other potential use of the facilities,” US Representative Frank Wolf wrote in a letter to Ma.
“Any demolitions that would reduce the capability to transmit into China should be halted until alternatives can be fully explored,” US Representative Dana Rohrabacher wrote in another letter to Ma.
US Representative Christopher Smith has also written to the president to express his concern that “any teardown would undermine the purpose for which these facilities were built” and would deprive US broadcasters of a chance to save expenses.
“I believe that any plan to tear down the Tainan and Huwei facilities should be delayed until their strategic utilization by international shortwave broadcasters is fully studied,” Smith said.
RTI Tainan substation director Tseng Wen-san (曾文三) yesterday said the plan to demolish the Greater Tainan facility was made due to a river expansion project and had nothing to do with “the Chinese communists.”
“It is an established policy that the Tian Ma Radio Station [the Tainan substation] will be relocated to Yunlin County’s Baojhong Township (褒忠),” he said, adding: “After the relocation to Yunlin, no changes will be made to our international radio broadcasts.”
Additional reporting by Tsai Wen-chu
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS