Taiwanese National Party (TNP) vice chairman Yang Zhi-yuan (楊智淵) is innocent, and Beijing should release him and allow him to return to Taiwan immediately, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday.
Yang has been detained by China since Aug. 3 last year for alleged involvement in “Taiwan separatist activities.”
The council issued the statement after the Chinese Supreme People’s Procuratorate yesterday announced that the Wenzhou People’s Procuratorate would soon indict Yang on secession charges after an investigation of him was concluded.
Photo courtesy of 908 Taiwan Republic Campaign head Chou Chung-teh
China has accused Yang of being a long-time advocate of Taiwanese independence and establishing the Taiwanese National Party to promote the cause.
“His party is also advocating that a referendum on Taiwanese independence be held to make Taiwan an independent and sovereign nation at the UN,” the council said.
“Since August last year, we have conveyed to Beijing multiple times through our channels of communication that Yang should be released immediately and safely, but it has yet to give any positive response on this matter,” it said.
“We have been aware since August that Yang was at one point asked to limit his activities to his residence and was subsequently arrested and detained. We have also kept close contact with Yang’s family and offered them all necessary assistance,” the council said.
Taiwan and China are seeking to resume normal cross-strait exchanges as the COVID-19 pandemic is easing, but Beijing’s “arbitrary arrests of Taiwanese has created fear and hurt the rights and interests of our people,” the council said.
Such a move is bound to be detrimental to exchanges and interactions between Taiwanese and Chinese, it said.
People should carefully assess relevant risks before traveling to China, as it is common for the Chinese government to disregard the rights of individuals, the council said.
Cross-Strait Policy Association researcher Wu Se-chih (吳瑟致) told the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) in an interview that arrests of Taiwanese in China are designed to create fear in Taiwan and intimidate Taiwanese ahead of the presidential and legislative elections next year.
“The point is not what Yang has done, because whether someone advocates Taiwanese independence or not is unilaterally determined by Beijing,” Wu said.
As cross-strait relations are at a low point, traveling to China carries significant political risk for Taiwanese, he said.
“Anything you said online or on certain occasions, whether it was about identifying with the Republic of China or advocating that Taiwan conducts its affairs as a normal country, could be perceived as promoting Taiwanese independence. These comments could get you arrested and result in you facing secession and sedition charges,” Wu said.
“Based on past experiences, the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] would first spend a long time building a case from what Taiwanese defendants have said online or at public occasions. The legal process would be long and opaque... Even though Taiwan and China have a legal assistance treaty, things would be difficult to handle once it becomes a national security issue,” he said.
In addition to Yang, two EBC News reporters are reportedly in custody in China after filming Chinese People’s Liberation Army exercises earlier this month.
Gusa Press editor-in-chief Li Yanhe (李延賀), also known as Fucha (富察), was also reportedly arrested by Chinese police in Shanghai while visiting family last month.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS