EBC News (東森新聞) has not sought government assistance to retrieve two of its reporters who remain in custody in China after filming Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises earlier this month, a source said yesterday.
They were covering the PLA’s “united sword” drills around Taiwan from April 8 to Monday last week.
CONFRONTATION
Photo: AFP
On the second day of the drills, the reporters on Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, the Chinese island closest to Taiwan proper, were establishing a connection with the news anchor when they were approached by a PLA soldier asking to see their credentials.
The soldier could be heard in the footage saying: “I just need to make sure you’re not a spy.”
EBC yesterday said the reporters are safe and have been in daily communication with the news division.
Photo: Screen grab from YouTube
They are in Xiamen “conducting business” and do not have plans to return at the moment, it said.
‘RESTRICTED RESIDENCE’
However, a person with knowledge of the matter said the reporters were taken into custody by Chinese authorities and were under “restricted residence.”
Although EBC said they have been in contact with the reporters, their actual status is unknown, the source said, adding that the government believes they are being kept from leaving Xiamen.
Their families have not contacted the Mainland Affairs Council or the Straits Exchange Foundation to help secure their release, they said.
DISAPPEARED
Unauthorized filming of PLA activities can result in serious repercussions.
Morrison Lee (李孟居), an unpaid adviser to Pingtung County’s Fangliao Township (枋寮), went missing in 2019 after sending photographs and footage of Chinese paramilitary police amassing on the border between Shenzhen and Hong Kong to the Fangliao mayor.
The state-run China Central Television later broadcast footage of Lee confessing to working as a spy. He was sentenced to one year and 10 months in prison, and deprived of political rights for two years.
Although his sentence is over, he has still been unable to return to Taiwan.
The cases should serve as a reminder to Taiwanese reporters that they must be careful when working in China, which does not have freedom of the press, the source said.
Additional reporting by Lin Hsin-ying
TENSIONS: The Chinese aircraft and vessels were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a joint air and sea military exercise, the Ministry of National Defense said A relatively large number of Chinese military aircraft and vessels were detected in Taiwan’s vicinity yesterday morning, apparently en route to a Chinese military exercise in the western Pacific, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. In a statement, the ministry said 36 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, including J-16 fighters and nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or an extension of it, and were detected in the southern and southeastern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) from 5:20am to 9:30am yesterday. They were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
The government would cancel kendo practitioner Su Yu-cheng’s (蘇郁程) nationality if he is confirmed to have represented China in the World Kendo Championships in Milan, Italy, last week, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday. “We have consulted the Sports Administration and were told that athletes participating in the championships must have the nationality of the country that they represent. They must also present their passports as proof,” council spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a weekly news conference. “If Su indeed represented China in the championships, we suspect that he has obtained Chinese nationality.” The Act Governing Relations Between the People of the