The Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) on Friday confirmed that Chinese public security authorities have detained a Taiwanese man from Changhua County, who had been missing for 10 months.
It has been verified through relevant channels that the 19-year-old man, surnamed Huang (黃), has been detained by public security authorities in China, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said.
The SEF, a semi-official organization tasked by the government to handle technical matters involving China, has contacted Huang’s family and obtained a general understanding of the possible reasons for his detention, Luo said.
Photo: Chung Li-hua, Taipei Times
However, further details about the reasons for the detention would not be disclosed, as the matter concerns Huang’s personal affairs, he added.
According to the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement (海峽兩岸共同打擊犯罪及司法互助協議), Chinese authorities should notify the National Police Agency if a Taiwanese is detained in China, Luo said.
“Why are you not honoring agreements that have been signed?” Luo said, urging the Chinese authorities to adhere to the existing notification mechanism, which is “a mutual responsibility that benefits people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.”
The Chinese authorities’ failure to adhere to such mechanisms outlined in the agreement meant Huang had been out of contact for an extended period, leaving the government and his family in the dark about his situation, Luo said.
When Huang’s family recently received a notice from Chinese authorities about his situation, they initially suspected it might be a scam. It was only after considerable effort that they were able to gain a clearer understanding of the circumstances, Luo said.
The SEF has formally reached out to its Chinese counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, regarding Huang’s case, Luo said.
Originally from Changhua’s Shengang Township (伸港), Huang went missing in March last year. His family only recently received a notice from a public security bureau in the Chinese city of Datong, Shanxi Province, about his detention.
The notice stated that Huang has been detained on charges of fraud filed against him on Dec. 2.
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
Taiwan plans to cull as many as 120,000 invasive green iguanas this year to curb the species’ impact on local farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture said. Chiu Kuo-hao (邱國皓), a section chief in the ministry’s Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency, on Sunday said that green iguanas have been recorded across southern Taiwan and as far north as Taichung. Although there is no reliable data on the species’ total population in the country, it has been estimated to be about 200,000, he said. Chiu said about 70,000 iguanas were culled last year, including about 45,000 in Pingtung County, 12,000 in Tainan, 9,900 in
ALLEGED SABOTAGE: The damage inflicted by the vessel did not affect connection, as data were immediately rerouted to other cables, Chunghwa Telecom said Taiwan suspects that a Chinese-owned cargo vessel damaged an undersea cable near its northeastern coast on Friday, in an alleged act of sabotage that highlights the vulnerabilities of Taipei’s offshore communications infrastructure. The ship is owned by a Hong Kong-registered company whose director is Chinese, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. An unidentified Taiwanese official cited in the report described the case as sabotage. The incident followed another Chinese vessel’s suspected involvement in the breakages of data cables in the Baltic Sea in November last year. While fishing trawlers are known to sometimes damage such equipment, nation states have also
RSS