TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The number of Taiwanese who reported being interrogated when traveling to China has more than doubled from four to nine after Beijing passed revisions to its counter-espionage law.
At the Legislative Yuan on Wednesday (Oct. 4), National Security Bureau (NSB) chief Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said that since China expanded its counterespionage law in July, the number of cases of Taiwanese being interrogated in China has doubled from the first half of the year. In one instance, an individual was not interrogated upon entry but rather after checking into a hotel, which is unusual, Tsai said.
During a session of the Foreign and National Defense Committee on Wednesday, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) asked if Taiwanese who recently visited China were faced with increased difficulties after China passed the revised counterespionage law. Tsai responded by saying that in the first half of this year, there were four such cases, but this number increased to nine since the new regulations took effect.
Tsai said that all of these individuals have successfully returned to Taiwan without being detained. However, they were stopped and interrogated when entering and leaving Chinese customs, and the contents of their mobile phones were also inspected.
According to Tsai, among the nine individuals who were subjected to questioning, their identities included members of social organizations, scholars, and Taiwanese married to Chinese. In addition, Tsai said that there have been 13 recent cases of Taiwanese citizens being detained or imprisoned in China.
During the process of interrogating Taiwanese, Tsai said that Chinese authorities would mainly investigate any political statements made by those persons and examine communication records and mobile phone messages for any content critical of China. Tsai said that there was a very unusual case about 20 days ago in which a Taiwanese citizen who had already entered the country was questioned by Chinese national security authorities after checking into a hotel, but stressed that this is a rare occurrence.
Tsai pointed out that apart from planning amendments to China's Public Security Management Punishment Act, the NSB has observed that China's legislative direction for the next three to four years will be closely related to national security regulations, accounting for a substantial 30% to 40%. He cautioned Taiwanese citizens to exercise extra caution when entering China's borders.
