Opinion'Hsieh's Sina case shows lip service'
Taiwanese decry suspension of ex-premier's microblog account as censorship, saying that political differences make reunification unlikely
People have been unable to access former Taiwanese premier Frank Hsieh Chang-ting's newly opened account on the mainland's popular Sina Weibo microblogging site since last Wednesday due to an "unknown reason", his office says.
The apparent suspension of the microblog has become the talk of Taiwan, with many people seeing it as another act of censorship by the mainland authorities, and one that would make more Taiwanese back away from Beijing's call for reunification of the two sides.
The microblog became inaccessible a day after Hsieh, also a former chairman of Taiwan's pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, posted a message on his microblog. It said: "Whether or not there is freedom of speech does not depend on how freely you speak when you criticise high officials or people in power, but whether you lose your freedom after you speak."
The message attracted many responses from mainland internet users.
Hsieh's office confirmed that attempts to access his microblog a day after his posting had been met with a message saying "not available at the moment". That was also less than 24 hours after Sina verified him as "former DPP chairman".
Hsieh, who in October became the first highest-level DPP official to visit the mainland, said he had asked Sina Weibo to explain why his microblog was inaccessible but only received a response days later from the website operator, saying it was "still checking what has happened".
"There could be something fishy or it might just be [a] technical problem after all," he said.