29/05/2020
- Tsai Ing-wen visited exiled Hong Kong bookseller a day after NPC voted in favour of legislation
- Lam Wing-kee said fleeing Hongkongers saw Taiwan as a step towards applying for asylum in the West
President Tsai Ing-wen (centre) shows her support for Hong Kong bookseller Lam Wing-kee (right) with Lin Fei-fan, deputy secretary general of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party. Photo: Taiwan presidential office/AFP
Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen visited
exiled Hong Kong bookseller Lam Wing-kee
on Friday in a show of support for Hongkongers amid Beijing’s plan to introduce a controversial
national security law.
Her visit came a day after China’s legislature, the National People’s Congress, voted in favour of a resolution to initiate the legal process for a national security law to be imposed on Hong Kong, despite concerns from the United States, the European Union and elsewhere that the move would erode human rights, freedom and autonomy in the city.
Tsai said on behalf of all Taiwanese people, she welcomed Lam to stay in Taiwan where he could bolster the island’s efforts to further freedom and democracy.
Hongkongers who want to flee to Taiwan ‘will go through strict screening’
Lam, one of the five shareholders and staff at Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay Books, fled to Taiwan in April last year after he was detained by Chinese agents for eight months in 2015 for selling books critical of the Chinese leadership.
between October and December that year and it emerged they had been detained on the Chinese mainland.
President Tsai Ing-wen looks at a book while visiting Lam Wing-kee on Friday. Photo: Taiwan presidential office/AFP
Lam later said he had been detained and blindfolded by police after crossing the border into mainland China from Hong Kong in October 2015.
The case triggered a huge controversy and raised fears of growing Chinese control in the city.
Seeing Lam as a representative of Hongkongers fleeing to Taiwan to avoid political persecution, Tsai said she wanted to understand what challenges these exiles faced and what help they needed during their stay on the self-ruled island.
“I want to tell Boss Lam [Wing-kee] and our Hong Kong friends that the government here has set up an ad hoc committee to offer help to them very soon,” she said.
On Wednesday, Tsai called for the government to set up an ad hoc committee to work out a “humanitarian help action plan” for Hong Kong people seeking to live in Taiwan or immigrate to the island. It was borne out of concern they would be arrested or prosecuted for taking part in months of anti-government protests triggered last year by the now-shelved extradition bill.
Chen Ming-tong, head of the Mainland Affairs Council, the island’s top mainland policy planner, said on Thursday his council would draft the measures for cabinet’s approval in a week.
Under the plan, the Mainland Affairs Council would issue special measures and coordinate with the island’s authorities on how to help Hongkongers relocate to Taiwan and take care of them.
Bookseller Lam told Tsai what Hongkongers needed most was to have their stay in Taiwan extended.
Lam said that currently, because of the absence of a political asylum law, Hongkongers could only apply to live in Taiwan through study, work, investment, their professional skills or close relatives.
He said fleeing Hongkongers usually came to Taiwan on tourist permits, which at most allowed them to stay for up to six months, giving them not enough time to apply for long-term residence in Taiwan.
“It would be better if they can stay for nine months and preferably one year,” he said.
Lam said some fleeing Hongkongers saw Taiwan as an intermediary base as they hoped to apply for asylum in the West, but it took a long time for Western countries to screen and approve their asylum requests.
Meanwhile, Premier Su Tseng-chang said Article 18 of the Laws and Regulations Regarding Hong Kong and Macau Affairs was good enough to deal with the current crisis in the absence of a political asylum law in Taiwan.
That article states that “necessary help shall be provided to Hong Kong or Macau residents whose safety and liberty are immediately threatened for political reasons”.
Source: SCMP
Posted in action plan, ad hoc committee, applying, asylum, autonomy, Beijing’s, blindfolded, bookseller, challenges, Chinese mainland, concerns, Democracy, Democratic Progressive Party, detained, European Union, exiled, extradition bill, favour, fleeing, Freedom, Government, Hong Kong, Hong Kong and Macau Affairs, Hong Kong Causeway Bay, Hongkongers, Human rights, humanitarian help, imposed, Lam Wing-kee, legislation, Mainland Affairs Council, National People’s Congress, national security law, NPC, Political asylum, political persecution, President, residents, security law, self-ruled island, shadow, supporting, Taiwan, thanks, Tsai Ing-wen, Uncategorized, under, United States, visited, voted, West |
Leave a Comment »
26/04/2020
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China’s smog-prone northern province of Hebei met its air quality targets by a big margin over the winter after concerted efforts to tackle emissions, a local official said on Sunday, without mentioning coronavirus-related factory shutdowns.
Average PM2.5 concentrations over the October-March period dropped 15% from a year earlier to 61 micrograms per cubic metre, while sulphur dioxide also fell by a third, said He Litao, vice-head of the provincial environmental bureau.
Most experts have attributed the significant decline in air pollution throughout China in the first quarter to the coronavirus outbreak and tough containment measures, which saw cities and entire provinces locked down and sharply reduced traffic and industrial activity throughout the country.
With millions staying at home, concentrations of lung-damaging PM2.5 particles fell by nearly 15% in more than 300 Chinese cities in the first three months of 2020.
Shanghai saw emissions fall by nearly 20% in the first quarter, while in Wuhan, where the pandemic originated, monthly averages dropped more than a third compared to last year.
However, He of the Hebei environmental bureau attributed the local decline in pollution to the “conscientious implementation” of government decisions even in the face of unfavourable weather conditions.
According to a winter action plan published last year, 10 cities in Hebei were expected to cut lung-damaging small particles known as PM2.5 by 1%-6% compared to the previous year.
Despite the decline, average PM2.5 was still much higher than China’s official standard of 35 micrograms, and the recommended World Health Organization level of 10 micrograms.
Source: Reuters
Posted in 10, 15, 15%, 20%, 2020, 300, 35, according, action plan, air pollution, air quality, also, at home, attributed, Average, averages, “conscientious implementation”, big, China, China's, China’s, cities, compared, concentrations, concerted, conditions, containment, coronavirus outbreak, coronavirus-related, Country, cubic metre, cut, decisions, decline, dropped, earlier, efforts, emissions, entire, environmental bureau, even, expected, experts, face-of, Factory, fall, Fell, first, first quarter, from, Government, Hebei, industrial activity, known as, last year, level, local, local official, locked down, lung-damaging, March, margin, measures, mentioning, micrograms, millions, monthly, months, more than, most, nearly, northern province, October, Official, originated, over, pandemic, particles, Period, PM2.5, Pollution, previous, provinces, provincial environmental bureau, published, recommended, reduced, said, saw, Shanghai, sharply, shutdowns, significant, small, standard, staying, sulphur dioxide, Sunday, tackle, targets, third, Three, throughout, tough, traffic, Uncategorized, unfavourable, weather, which, while, winter, without, World Health Organization, Wuhan, year |
Leave a Comment »
18/04/2020
BEIJING, April 17 (Xinhua) — China supports the action plan issued by the Group of 20 (G20) to deal with the impact of COVID-19 and will contribute to the G20 efforts to fight the pandemic through its own policy actions, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said Friday.
G20 finance ministers and central bank governors agreed Wednesday to suspend debt service payments for the world’s poorest countries from May 1 until the end of the year.
China will implement more proactive fiscal policies with higher quality and efficiency, appropriately increase the fiscal deficit ratio, issue special government bonds, increase the scale of special bonds for local governments, and further cut taxes and fees, the MOF said.
In the process, China will strengthen macroeconomic policy coordination with G20 members and jointly support the implementation of the G20 action plan, the MOF said.
China will carry out specific work through bilateral consultations at the request of relevant poor borrowers in accordance with the G20 consensus, the MOF said.
To achieve better results of the action plan, China calls on multilateral creditors and commercial creditors to take appropriate actions as soon as possible to jointly help the poorest countries tide over their difficulties, the MOF said.
China has been providing support to the international community through other bilateral and multilateral channels, including donating 20 million U.S. dollars to the World Health Organization and earmarking 10 million U.S. dollars in its Poverty Reduction and Regional Cooperation Fund under the Asian Development Bank to support outbreak control programs in the region.
Source: Xinhua
Posted in 1, action plan, agreed, Asian Development Bank, Beijing, bilateral consultations, central bank governors, China, contribute, countries, COVID-19, debt service payments, end of the year, fight, Friday, G20, G20 finance ministers, G20 members, Group of 20 (G20), impact, local governments, macroeconomic policy coordination, May, Ministry of Finance (MOF), outbreak control programs, pandemic, policy actions, poorest, poorest countries, Poverty Reduction and Regional Cooperation Fund, proactive fiscal policy, region, special government bonds, supports, suspend, to help, Uncategorized, Wednesday, World Health Organization, world's |
Leave a Comment »
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 