Talking about the Threshold for a “Refugee Act” from Canada’s Repatriating a Figure of the M’land’s Democracy Movement

 Talking about the Threshold for a “Refugee Act” from Canada’s Repatriating a Figure of the M’land’s Democracy Movement

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

September 4, 2019

 Translation of an Excerpt

Hong Kong’s protests and demonstrations over the repatriation amendment bill to the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance have become more and more violent; the confrontations between the police and the public have tended to careen out of control. At this juncture, Joshua Wong, a leader of the Hong Kong student movement, demanded that the DPP government enact a “Refugee Act”, extending a helping hand to the Hong Kong people who pursue democracy so as to let them avoid the PRC’s persecution. To this, the Tsai government, which had earlier actively voiced its support for the protests and demonstrations over the repatriation amendment bill, nevertheless, looked the other way; Premier Su Tseng-chang declared that "existing legislation is adequate for operations." President Tsai said that she would assist Taiwanese businessmen in Hong Kong and Hong Kong people in Taiwan to cope with the changing situation. Both evaded the question of refugee legislation.

In contrast with the earlier attitude, the Tsai government's flip-flopping has revealed its hypocrisy and opportunism. In the past three months, President Tsai endlessly voiced support for the movement against the repatriation amendment bill, principally because those protests and demonstrations conform with her "anti-China" path and were also conducive to her electoral prospects in her re-election bid for the presidency next year. At that time, the anti-repatriation amendment bill movement was like a gun falling from the sky, letting Tsai Ing-wen use it to her satisfaction for free. And now, the protests and demonstrations movement has gradually become increasingly violent and thorny, with people unable to see an opportunity to wind down peacefully. Thus, the Tsai government at this time immediately made a turn in its attitude, not willing to face an endgame that had to be drawn to a conclusion. If this kind of approach that caters to the cheap and easy is not hypocrisy and opportunism, then what is?

A few days ago, Canada repatriated Yang Wei, a figure in the Mainland democracy movement; this example may perhaps offer another kind of pondering. After the June Fourth Incident (June 4th, 1989), Yang Wei distributed propaganda leaflets urging the overthrow of the Chinese Communist regime, and thus was arrested and put in jail. Later he fled to Thailand, where his refugee status was certified by the United Nations, and secured Canadian permanent residency in 2003, settling in Toronto. For many years, he repeatedly committed violent acts in Toronto, including wounding a bus driver with over a dozen stabbings; the Canadian government thus decided to repatriate him to China. Despite the fact that some criticized this as inhuman treatment for a political offender, the Canadian government claimed that this was for safeguarding "public safety of the Canadian society." Yang Wei is a refugee, a figure in the democracy movement and an offender of violence, or all three in one person, as far as Canada is concerned, it is truly a problem. Instead, changing the locale to Hong Kong, if the Tsai government is prepared to open wide the gates, who knows what kind of "refugees" or "democracy fighters" it will welcome to Taiwan?

[Translator’s note: 1] Other commentators on the subject point out that the Republic of China (ROC) says its sovereignty extends to the Mainland as well as Hong Kong and Macau, so even if a refuge law were enacted, it could not be applicable to other parts of the country covered by the same sovereignty.

2) In 1975, when the South Vietnam government collapsed, the world witnessed myriad boat people seeking refuge at sea. The ROC could only offer temporary shelters on Penghu (Pescadores Islands) waiting for settlement in other countries on the grounds that Taiwan was a small and crowded island.]

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