Protecting national security is the priority, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said yesterday after the government rejected residency applications by Hong Kong entertainment tycoon Charles Heung (向華強) and his son.
“Government officials handling the case have applied the most rigorous scrutiny, with the top priority to protect national security,” Su said. “Ministries will report to the public the details of the decisionmaking process at a suitable time.”
Su was responding to media queries about the National Immigration Agency’s (NIA) decision on Thurdsay to deny applications by Heung and his eldest son, Jacky Heung (向佐), to obtain residency in Taiwan through Heung’s Taiwanese wife, Tiffany Chan (陳嵐).
Photo: Chang Chung-yi, Taipei Times
The NIA said that its decision was based on Article 22 of the Regulations Governing Residency or Permanent Residency for People of the Hong Kong Area and the Macau Area (香港澳門居民進入臺灣地區及居留定居許可辦法), which lists reasons to reject an application, including incomplete paperwork, the risk of an applicant “harming national interests” and involvement in entities linked to the Chinese government.
Sources said that the decision was made after meetings between officials from the NIA, the National Security Bureau and the Mainland Affairs Council.
Charles Heung is honorary deputy chairman of the China Film Foundation, sources said.
Although it is registered as a foundation, it is controlled by the Chinese State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, an agency under the Chinese State Council, they said.
Bureau officials said that the foundation conducts propaganda campaigns for Beijing and organizes programs for the Chinese government’s push for “all-citizen national defense” in public education.
NIA records showed that Charles Heung has been refused entry numerous times, as files from the Martial Law-era Taiwan Garrison Command list him as a “senior figure” of Hong Kong’s largest criminal organization, the Sun Yee On.
Vetting showed that Jacky Heung is a member of the National Committee of the All-China Youth Federation, an organ with links to the Chinese Communist Youth League, sources said.
National security officials could not exclude the possibility that the family was seeking to move to Taiwan on instructions from the Chinese Communist Party to carry out specific missions, and might undermine public safety, as well as the rights of Taiwanese and Hong Kongers in Taiwan.
Additional reporting by Jason Pan and Lin Liang-sheng
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
A registered sex offender from the US who went missing after entering Taiwan has been found and would be deported in light of the risk he poses to the public, the National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday. The agency launched a search for Levi Forrest Wallace, 43, after it was informed by the American Institute of Taiwan (AIT) that he had entered Taiwan on Oct. 2 on a tourist visa. He was not on the US government’s wanted list. Wallace was sentenced to 90 days in jail with a two-year probation in 2001 after he was convicted of sexual delinquency of
RSS