Beijing’s tightened security restrictions have resulted in an increased number of personal safety complaints from Taiwanese businesspeople visiting China, with 185 recorded from January to August, according to the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) Taiwanese Businesspeople Affairs Web page.
The MAC said that its Web site would continue to remind people that the Chinese Communist Party might inappropriately question or detain Taiwanese visiting China.
Gusa Press (八旗文化) editor-in-chief Li Yanhe (李延賀), also known as Fucha (富察), is under house arrest in China, while Taiwanese National Party Vice Chairman Yang Chi-yuan (楊智淵) was arrested on charges of “endangering national security” and “secession” in Wenzhou in August last year.
Photo courtesy of MAC
Southern Taiwan Union of Cross-strait Relations Associations chairman Tsai Chin-shu (蔡金樹) is still being detained on Gulangyu island off of Xiamen after being released from prison this year, the MAC said.
There were 184 personal safety complaints in 2020, 201 in 2021, 230 last year and 158 from January to August, MAC data showed.
The figures do not refer to the number of detained people, the council added.
It said it would continue to remind the public that, unless necessary, it officially recommends that people not visit China.
Separately, students and businesspeople from Hong Kong and Macau in Taiwan were invited to attend a Double Ten National Day gala at Taipei’s Shangri-La Hotel.
MAC Minister Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) yesterday said that 800,000 people from Hong Kong and Macau visited Taiwan from January to last month.
Over the past five years, about 50,000 Hong Kong and Macau residents have had their applications to live in Taiwan approved, with 8,600 applying and receiving approval for Alien Permanent Resident Certificates.
Master’s and doctorate students from Hong Kong and Macau numbered 11,189 for the school year starting in August last year, he said.
Chiu said freedom and democratic values were the primary reasons for Hong Kong and Macau residents choosing to live in Taiwan.
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