China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday.
“China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail.
The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said.
Photo copied by Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats and legal pressure only exacerbate tensions and undermine cross-strait peace and stability,” the spokesperson said.
“The United States will continue to support Taiwan in the face of China’s provocative and irresponsible actions,” the spokesperson added.
The spokesperson’s remarks came after China’s Taiwan Affairs Office on Wednesday last week announced that it had launched a new section on its official Web site for reporting independence advocates.
The new section allows people to report “vile acts by those advocating ‘Taiwanese independence’ and their accomplices in persecuting Taiwanese compatriots,” Xinhua news agency reported.
Certain organizations, government officials and online influencers have acted as enforcers of “Taiwanese independence” and their accomplices, “abetting wrongdoing and facilitating aggression,” Xinhua quoted TAO spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華) as saying.
Later on Wednesday, the TAO issued a news release saying that as of 5pm, it had received 323 e-mails reporting people for “vile acts,” such as “threatening to disband patriotic pro-unification groups and openly infringing on the legitimate rights of Chinese spouses in Taiwan.”
The people reported included Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳), several Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers, YouTubers Pa Chiung (八炯) and Chen Po-yuan (陳柏源), and United Microelectronics Corp founder Robert Tsao (曹興誠), the financial backer of nonprofit civil defense organization Kuma Academy.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday criticized the new reporting system, calling the move “a full-scale interference in Taiwan’s internal affairs.”
“It also proves that Taiwan must remain vigilant,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS