Suspension of the Act Governing Relations with Hong Kong and Macau (香港澳門關係條例) would be the equivalent of cutting off Hong Kong, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) said yesterday.
“Without [the act], how will you stand with the people of Hong Kong?” Chiang asked outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Sunday wrote on Facebook that Taiwan, like all democratic nations, stands with the people of Hong Kong as she expressed concern over China’s plan to impose a national security law for Hong Kong.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
For security reasons, Tsai said her administration would consider invoking Article 60 of the law if the situation gets worse.
Article 60 stipulates that if any change occurs in Hong Kong or Macau that endangers Taiwan’s national security, the Cabinet may ask the president to order a suspension of the application of “all or part of the provisions of this act.”
Chiang yesterday questioned whether Article 18 — which states that “necessary assistance shall be provided to Hong Kong or Macau residents whose safety and liberty are immediately threatened for political reasons” — would still apply if the legislation were to be suspended.
If Beijing’s draft national security law, which has sparked renewed protests in Hong Kong, is to be implemented without communication with Hong Kongers, the territory’s long-standing freedom and rule of law would be greatly affected, Chiang said.
There would also be a significant effect on self-governance and the development of democratization in Hong Kong, he said, urging Beijing to handle the matter carefully.
The KMT does not want to see Hong Kong’s freedom and rule of law, or Beijing’s promise to let Hong Kongers administer the territory, vanish, he said.
Chiang called on the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration to respond to the situation in Hong Kong.
On Sunday, the KMT issued a statement calling on the Hong Kong government and Beijing to establish a communication channel with opposition groups to maintain stability in the territory.
The KMT urged Beijing not to misjudge the potential political and economic outcomes the situation could have.
It also asked the government to assist Taiwanese in Hong Kong.
Taiwan and Hong Kong cannot be discussed on equal terms, the KMT said, adding that it strongly rejects the “one country, two systems” framework Beijing has implemented in Hong Kong and Macau.
Additional reporting by Lin Liang-sheng
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,