Vice President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday urged Beijing to stop media repression in Hong Kong, where the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily is printing its last edition today after a police crackdown last week.
In a post on Facebook, Lai criticized Hong Kong police for targeting the Hong Kong edition of Apple Daily, which has been critical of the authorities in Hong Kong and Beijing for undermining freedoms and human rights in the territory.
Hong Kong police on Thursday last week raided Apple Daily’s newsroom and arrested five executives on national security grounds.
Police have also frozen the assets of Apple Daily and affiliates.
Lai urged Beijing to stop oppressing freedom of the press and speech, and said Taiwan stands with the people of Hong Kong.
Among the five people arrested last week, parent company Next Digital chief executive officer Cheung Kim-hung (張劍虹) and Apple Daily editor-in-chief Ryan Law (羅偉光) have been charged with collusion with foreign forces and remain in detention, while the other three have been released on bail.
Dozens of articles published by Apple Daily have been used against the detainees, making it potentially the first time news reports are used as evidence of crimes under the National Security Law.
Many Hong Kong people have defied the government, Lai wrote, adding that Apple Daily sold 500,000 copies the day after the office raid.
It is unclear how many copies the newspaper sold that day, but it printed 500,000 copies, up from 80,000 the previous day.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
EVA Air is prohibiting the use of portable chargers on board all flights starting from Saturday, while China Airlines is advising passengers not to use them, following the lead of South Korean airlines. Current regulations prohibit portable chargers and lithium batteries from check-in luggage and require them to be properly packed in carry-on baggage, EVA Air said. To improve onboard safety, portable chargers and spare lithium batteries would be prohibited from use on all fights starting on Saturday, it said. Passengers are advised to fully charge electronic devices before boarding and use the AC and USB charging outlets at their seat, it said. South
WAR SIMULATION: The developers of the board game ‘2045’ consulted experts and analysts, and made maps based on real-life Chinese People’s Liberation Army exercises To stop invading Chinese forces seizing Taiwan, board gamer Ruth Zhong chooses the nuclear option: Dropping an atomic bomb on Taipei to secure the nation’s freedom and her victory. The Taiwanese board game 2045 is a zero-sum contest of military strategy and individual self-interest that puts players on the front lines of a simulated Chinese attack. Their battlefield game tactics would determine the theoretical future of Taiwan, which in the real world faces the constant threat of a Chinese invasion. “The most interesting part of this game is that you have to make continuous decisions based on the evolving situation,
Actor Lee Wei (李威) was released on bail on Monday after being named as a suspect in the death of a woman whose body was found in the meeting place of a Buddhist group in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) last year, prosecutors said. Lee, 44, was released on NT$300,000 (US$9,148) bail, while his wife, surnamed Chien (簡), was released on NT$150,000 bail after both were summoned to give statements regarding the woman’s death. The home of Lee, who has retreated from the entertainment business in the past few years, was also searched by prosecutors and police earlier on Monday. Lee was questioned three
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