Wed, Feb 28, 2024 page3

• Rights advocates protest at Chinese office in Taipei

  • By Shelley Shan / Staff reporter
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  Human rights campaigners yesterday protested in front of the Association for Tourism Exchange Across the Taiwan Straits’ office in Taipei, accusing the China Coast Guard of breaching Taiwanese sovereignty over the waters around Kinmen County by boarding and inspecting a Taiwanese tourist boat on Monday last week.

  The association is a semi-official representative office of China in Taiwan handling tourism-related affairs.

  The protesters called on Taiwanese to refrain from visiting China in the face of Beijing’s increasing hostility toward those who do not espouse its “one China” principle.

  

  Protesters from the Taiwan Citizen Front and the Taiwan Association for Human Rights shout slogans while holding a banner in front of the Association for Tourism Exchange Across the Taiwan Straits in Taipei yesterday.

  Photo: Sam Yeh, AFP

  China Coast Guard officers boarded the Taiwanese tourist boat as political vengeance for the deaths of two Chinese fishers, who had been operating an unregistered fishing boat and illegally crossed into Taiwan’s restricted waters, Taiwan Economic Democracy Union deputy secretary-general Hsu Kuan-tze (許冠澤) said.

  “It was only normal for Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration to enforce the law in our own waters. While Taiwanese prosecutors are still investigating the incident on Feb. 14, China on Feb. 18 announced that it would begin regular patrols in waters between Kinmen County and China’s Xiamen City, and boarded a Taiwanese tourist boat the next day. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office also supported the China Coast Guard, saying that no restricted waters exist between Kinmen and Xiamen,” Hsu said.

  A series of responses from China to the two fishers’ deaths showed its complete disregard for Taiwan’s sovereignty over the waters around Kinmen and its malicious intent to provoke Taiwanese law enforcement personnel, he said.

  “We should not become accustomed to Beijing’s constant breaches of the nation’s sovereignty,” he added.

  Chinese frequently entered waters near Kinmen and Lienchiang County (Matsu) to engage in illegal behavior, including fishing and sand dredging, Taiwan Economic Democracy Union convener Liang Chung-chiang (賴中強) said.

  The Coast Guard Administration has been dealing with these offenses within the boundaries of the law, but it has failed to stop China from frequently challenging the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, he said.

  China’s moves to create a new “status quo” and negate Taiwanese sovereignty and power to enforce the law include its unilateral change of the M503, W122 and W123 aviation routes, which took effect on Feb. 1, he said.

  Not responding to Chinese bullying would only encourage it to push the envelope, and Taiwanese could gradually become numb to such behavior, like a frog being slowly boiled alive, he said.

  Taiwanese should avoid visiting China unless it is absolutely necessary, he said, vowing to launch a large-scale boycott of China if it shows neither remorse nor any improvement.

  Taiwan Economic Democracy Union manager Lee Ming-che (李明哲), who served a five-year sentence in China after being charged with “subversion of state power” and returned to Taiwan in 2022, said that Chinese coast guards boarding a Taiwanese China has for human rights.

  “Laws in China are defined by leaders of the Chinese Communist Party and do not have identical standards across the board. Casual conversations and conduct of ordinary people could easily be interpreted as intentions to commit a crime,” he said.

  As such, not only is it dangerous to travel to China, it is also dangerous to travel to countries that have extradition agreements with China or Hong Kong, he added.
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