Taiwan’s Apple Daily yesterday issued a statement condemning the hacking of the Next Media Group’s (壹傳媒集團) Web sites earlier yesterday, saying that it was a severe infringement on media liberty and political oppression against Hong Kongers’ efforts toward democracy.
The Apple Daily statement said there was reason to believe that the attacks originated from China and were meant to batter the determination of Hong Kongers to achieve democracy, and to attack the pro-general elections Next Media Group, because the electronic voting system set up to gather support for general elections in Hong Kong had also gone down.
“The attack on the Apple Daily today shows that no other media would be safe unless they, like Chinese media, delivered the same message [as other Chinese media],” the statement said.
“Taiwan should take heed of what is happening to Hong Kong as it is very possibly what Taiwan would face [should it become assimilated into China],” it added.
The statement said the Apple Daily would not bow down to oppression and would not deviate from its stance of supporting democracy, adding that it would do its best to get the Web site up and running, and use every possible channel available at its disposal, such as YouTube and Facebook fan pages, to send out its news stories.
Apple Daily (Taiwan) president Eric Chen (陳裕鑫) said that due to attacks in February, the group had already reinforced its defenses against hacking, but the attack this time was stronger than any other attempts previously seen and it overwhelmed the system.
“The DPP’s [Democratic Progressive Party] longstanding position is that the government is obligated to protect the stability and security of the flow of information of all media outlets and platforms, and the interference of the information flow would be a form of infringement of the freedom of the press, which is not allowed in any democracy,” DPP spokesperson Huang Di-ying (黃帝穎) said yesterday.
DPP lawmakers Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) and Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) criticized Beijing’s denial of freedom of the press and its authoritarian rule, calling for Taiwanese to “see the true face of what China is all about.”
Meanwhile in Hong Kong, a cyberattack on a voting Web site threatened to derail an unofficial referendum on democratic reform in Hong Kong, seen as a gauge of the desire for change in the former British colony that reverted to Chinese rule in 1997, an organizer said late on Tuesday.
The referendum is seen as an important test for pro-democracy activists who believe the public in freewheeling Hong Kong are dissatisfied with the pace of political reform promised by Beijing.
The Web site received “billions of visits” in the run-up to the vote that starts tomorrow, said Benny Tai, an associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong and one of the referendum’s organizers.
Such moves are known as distributed denial-of-service attacks, which aim to overwhelm a Web site with requests so regular that visitors cannot reach it.
“We are considering, if the online system does not work as planned, we may extend the voting time so that we can get as many votes as possible, as planned. We had hoped to get about 200,000 votes, even 300,000,” Tai said. “Nothing will deter us from going on. We will continue.”
Voters would be able to cast ballots at 15 voting stations throughout Hong Kong on Sunday if the Web site is down.
Additional reporing by Chris Wang
DEATH THREAT: A MAC official said that it has urged Beijing to avoid creating barriers that would impede exchanges across the Strait, but it continues to do so People should avoid unnecessary travel to China after Beijing issued 22 guidelines allowing its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death “Taiwan independence separatists,” the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday as it raised its travel alert for China, including Hong Kong and Macau, to “orange.” The guidelines published last week “severely threaten the personal safety of Taiwanese traveling to China, Hong Kong and Macau,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a news conference in Taipei. “Following a comprehensive assessment, the government considers it necessary to elevate the travel alert to orange from yellow,” Liang said. Beijing has
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday said that the Chinese Communist Party was planning and implementing “major” reforms, ahead of a political conclave that is expected to put economic recovery high on the agenda. Chinese policymakers have struggled to reignite growth since late 2022, when restrictions put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic were lifted. The world’s second-largest economy is beset by a debt crisis in the property sector, persistently low consumption and high unemployment among young people. Policymakers “are planning and implementing major measures to further deepen reform in a comprehensive manner,” Xi said in a speech at the Great Hall
CIVIL DEFENSE: More reservists in alternative service would help establish a sound civil defense system for use in wartime and during natural disasters, Kuma Academy’s CEO said While a total of 120,000 reservists are expected to be called up for alternative reserve drills this year, compared with the 6,505 drilled last year, the number has been revised to 58,000 due to a postponed training date, Deputy Minster of the Interior Ma Shih-yuan (馬士元) said. In principle, the ministry still aims to call up 120,000 reservists for alternative reserve drills next year, he said, but the actual number would not be decided later until after this year’s evaluation. The increase follows a Legislative Yuan request that the Ministry of the Interior address low recruitment rates, which it made while reviewing
SOLUTIONS NEEDED: Taiwan must attract about 400,000 to 500,000 skilled foreign workers due to population decline, the minister of economic affairs said in Washington President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration is considering a plan to import labor to deal with an impending shortage of engineers and other highly skilled workers, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said in Washington on Tuesday. Kuo was leading a delegation attending the SelectUSA Investment Summit. Taiwan must attract about 400,000 to 500,000 skilled foreign workers for high-end manufacturing jobs by 2040, he said. Ministry of Economic Affairs officials are still calculating the precise number of workers that are needed, as it works on loosening immigration restrictions and creating incentives, Kuo said. Taiwanese firms operating factories in the US and other countries would