Why does Taiwan treat fleeing Hong Kong activists as illegal immigrants after inciting them?
- Yonden Lhatoo calls out the Taipei government for promising a safe haven for young anti-Beijing activists fleeing the city and failing to deliver as they risk their lives to reach the self-ruled island
Are the chickens finally coming home to roost for cocky little Taiwan?
Just this week, China’s coastguard intercepted a boatload of bedraggled anti-government activists from Hong Kong with a one-way ticket to Taiwan. All 12 were arrested for illegally entering mainland Chinese waters.
The extradition of this group to Hong Kong is not a complicated matter. Under mainland law, they can be jailed for up to a year as illegal immigrants before being returned home, but an established mechanism also allows for wanted fugitives to be sent back across the border to face trial here.
More complex and politically charged is the similar detention of five other Hong Kong activists, this time by Taiwan’s maritime authorities, while attempting to flee the city for asylum on the self-ruled island last month. According to Taiwanese media reports, they were arrested by the island’s coastguard when their boat ran out of fuel in waters administered by Taipei.
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Deporting them as common illegal immigrants would be morally reprehensible for a government that not only trashed any notion of a fugitive-transfer deal with Hong Kong, but also took full advantage of the backlash against this city’s ill-fated extradition bill in 2019, projecting itself as a safe haven for those who broke the law here during the campaign to oppose the controversial legislation.
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Don’t forget how Taipei played Hong Kong like a fiddle while it burned last year. And remember how Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, a mostly spent pro-independence force on her way out of office, won a second term by presenting Hong Kong’s crisis to her electorate as proof that Beijing’s “one country, two systems” policy would not work for the island.
After her steadfast glorification of Hong Kong activists as dissident heroes and freedom fighters – while studiously ignoring the mob violence and anarchy that undermined their protest campaign – Tsai announced a grand plan earlier this year to provide humanitarian support, including a living allowance, to those fleeing prosecution here.
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But notice the change in Taipei’s tone, now that young Hongkongers are piling onto ramshackle boats and risking their lives to reach the island in the misguided belief that they will be welcomed with open arms as champions of democracy. The No 2 official at the cabinet-level Mainland Affairs Council stated this week that Taipei would never encourage anyone to enter Taiwan illegally, and warned that anyone who did would face criminal liability.
Say what? But aren’t these all brave warriors who dared to stand up to Beijing and are now fleeing repression and retaliation in Hong Kong? Surely whatever criminal cases they face in this city’s courts must stem from trumped-up charges and they’re all essentially victims of political persecution? How about an exemption for the sake of a noble cause?
No? How conveniently the narrative changes and the goalposts move when it’s time to deliver on lofty promises made to idealistic youngsters now seeking to collect.
Shame on Taiwan if it does not lie in this mess of a bed it has made and bear direct responsibility, should anything untoward happen to these youthful dissidents. As you sow, so you reap.
Yonden Lhatoo is the chief news editor at the Post
