From settlement to counselling, Taiwan promises help for fleeing Hong Kongers

TAIPEI — Taiwan on Thursday promised to settle Hong Kongers who flee the Chinese-ruled city due to political reasons, offering help from employment to counselling as China pushes new security legislation that has triggered fresh protests.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen this week became the first world leader to pledge specific measures to help people from Hong Kong who may leave the former British colony due to the new legislation, a move that is certain to sour already poor ties between Taipei and Beijing.

Chen Ming-tong, head of Taiwan's top China-policy maker, the Mainland Affairs Council, told parliament the government will establish an organization to deliver "humanitarian relief" that includes settlement and employment in a joint effort with activists groups.

He said counselling services will also be available for Hong Kongers, some of whom may take part in increasingly violent pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.

"Many Hong Kongers want to come to Taiwan. Our goal is to give them settlement and care," Chen said, urging the public not use the word "refugee" as it could be "emotionally harmful" for people from the city.

Chen, however, did not give details such as scale, timing and qualification of the relief program when pressed by lawmakers, saying the government is still working on the details.

Hong Kong's demonstrators have won widespread sympathy in democratic Taiwan, which China considers as its territory to be taken by force, if necessary. Taiwan has shown no interest in being ruled by autocratic China. 


Help for Hong Kong has won rare bipartisan support in politically polarized Taiwan and 3 opposition parties have introduced bills to make it easier for Hong Kongers to live in Taiwan if they have to leave the city due to political reasons. 

Taiwan has no law on refugees that could be applied to protesters seeking asylum, but its laws promise to help Hong Kongers whose safety and liberty are threatened for political reasons.

Some say Tsai's government is not moving fast enough.

"Please come up with details of the humanitarian relief at the soonest. Don't wait until people shed blood like water," said Chen Yu-jen, a lawmaker from main opposition Kuomintang party. 

Ivan Tang, a Hong Kong pro-democracy activist, welcomed Tsai's support but cautioned a sense of urgency among protesters in the city, some of whom had been barred from entering Taiwan due to travel restrictions amid the coronavirus pandemic.

"They have nowhere to go... but the security law could be implemented soon," he said.

Taiwan has become a popular destination for Hong Kongers leaving the city, with the number of Hong Kong citizens granted Taiwan residency jumping 150 percent to 2,383 in the first 4 months of 2020 compared with a year ago, official data shows.

University applications to Taiwan from Hong Kong also rose 62 percent in 2020 from a year ago, and island's education ministry said this week it was planning to raise the quota for Hong Kong students. 

-reuters-

Taiwan unveils long-awaited gay marriage bill

TAIPEI - Taiwan's ruling party unveiled its latest attempt to create Asia's first gay marriage law on Thursday, a bill offering same sex-couples "permanent unions" as well as limited adoption rights, despite stiff opposition from conservatives.

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has had a stuttering and troubled journey towards delivering on their 2016 election promise to grant same-sex couples equal marriage rights.

In November, conservatives won a referendum against revising the island's Civil Code to allow gay marriage, in a blow to President Tsai Ing-wen's party and a stark illustration of the social divide caused by the issue.

The referendum came after Taiwan's Constitutional Court voted to legalize gay marriage in 2017 -- the first place in Asia to do so -- arguing that denying same-sex couples marriage rights was unconstitutional.

The court ordered the government to amend the law by May 24, 2019 but did not specify how it wanted gay marriage to be brought in.

The bill published Thursday by the cabinet is the Tsai administration's attempt to square that circle -- a new law that meets the court's demands while trying to respect the referendum result by not altering the Civil Code which currently defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

The draft law released by the justice ministry proposes allowing "two persons of the same sex to create a permanent union of intimate and exclusive nature for the committed purpose of managing a life together to realize the equal protection of the freedom of marriage."

Gay couples will be allowed to adopt the biological children of their partner while both parties are financially responsible for each other and are entitled to inheritance rights.

The law is set to take effect on May 24 but needs to pass parliament, where the DPP holds a majority.

Taiwan is seen as one of the most progressive societies in Asia when it comes to gay rights, and it stages the biggest gay pride parade in Asia annually. 

Gay marriage rights receive high approval ratings among young people in particular.

But it also remains a staunchly conservative place with powerful religious lobbies especially outside urban areas, and analysts say DPP underestimated how controversial their gay marriage proposals would be. 

President Tsai openly supported the legalization of gay marriage before she was elected but has since said there needs to be more consensus in society.

If the bill is passed, it would be Asia's first gay marriage law. In December, Thailand's junta rulers proposed a similar bill but it has yet to make it to parliament in the kingdom that is currently in the midst of an election campaign. 

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China says weapons won't stop unification with Taiwan

BEIJING - China's Defense Ministry said on Thursday it was futile for Taiwan to think it could use arms to prevent unification, as the self-ruled democratic island looks to fresh arms sales by the United States amid what it sees as a growing Chinese threat.

China has never renounced the use of force to bring under its control what it deems a wayward province, and Taiwan's defence ministry says China has more than 1,000 missiles directed at the island.

The Trump administration is crafting a big new arms package for Taiwan that could include advanced rocket systems and anti-ship missiles to defend against China, U.S. officials said earlier this month, a deal sure to anger Beijing.

China is deeply suspicious of Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, believing she wants to push the island towards formal independence, a red line for China. She says she wants to maintain peace with China.

"Separatist Taiwan independence forces and their activities are the greatest threat to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait," Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Wu Qian told a monthly news briefing.

"It is futile to 'use weapons to refuse unification', and is doomed to have no way out," he added, without elaborating.

Defeated Nationalist forces fled to Taiwan after losing a civil war to the Communists in 1949.

Proudly democratic Taiwan has shown no interest in being ruled by autocratic China.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

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Trump says US not necessarily bound by 'one China' policy

WASHINGTON - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said the United States did not necessarily have to stick to its long-standing position that Taiwan is part of "one China," questioning nearly four decades of policy in a move likely to antagonize Beijing.

Trump's comments on Fox News Sunday came after he prompted a diplomatic protest from China over his decision to accept a telephone call on Dec. 2 from Taiwan's president.

"I fully understand the 'one China' policy, but I don't know why we have to be bound by a 'one China' policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade," Trump told Fox News.

Trump's call with President Tsai Ing-wen was the first such contact with Taiwan by a U.S. president-elect or president since President Jimmy Carter switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 1979, acknowledging Taiwan as part of "one China."

Beijing considers Taiwan a renegade province and the subject is a sensitive one for China.

Chinese officials had no immediate reaction to Trump's remarks.

After Trump's phone conversation with Taiwan's president, the Obama administration said senior White House aides had spoken with Chinese officials to insist that Washington’s “one China” policy remained intact. The administration also warned that progress made in the U.S. relationship with China could be undermined by a "flaring up" of the Taiwan issue.

Following Trump's latest comments, a White House aide said the Obama administration had no reaction beyond its previously stated policy positions.

In the Fox interview, Trump criticized China over its currency policies, its activities in the South China Sea and its stance toward North Korea. He said it was not up to Beijing to decide whether he should take a call from Taiwan's leader.

"I don't want China dictating to me and this was a call put in to me," Trump said. "It was a very nice call. Short. And why should some other nation be able to say I can't take a call?"

"I think it actually would've been very disrespectful, to be honest with you, not taking it," Trump added.

Trump plans to nominate a long-standing friend of Beijing, Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, as the next U.S. ambassador to China.

However, Trump is considering John Bolton, a former Bush administration official who has urged a tougher line on Beijing, for a senior role at the U.S. State Department, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The source said Bolton was a leading candidate for the No. 2 job at the State Department.

In a Wall Street Journal article last January, Bolton said the next U.S. president should take bolder steps to halt China' military aggressiveness in the South and East China seas.

Bolton said Washington should consider using a "diplomatic ladder of escalation" that could start with receiving Taiwanese diplomats officially at the State Department and lead to restoring full diplomatic recognition.

In the Fox interview, Trump brought up a litany of complaints about China which he had emphasized during his presidential campaign.

"We're being hurt very badly by China with devaluation, with taxing us heavy at the borders when we don't tax them, with building a massive fortress in the middle of the South China Sea, which they shouldn't be doing, and frankly with not helping us at all with North Korea," Trump said. "You have North Korea. You have nuclear weapons and China could solve that problem and they're not helping us at all."

Economists, including those at the International Monetary Fund, have widely viewed China's efforts to prop up the yuan's value over the past year as evidence that Beijing is no longer keeping its currency artificially low to make Chinese exports cheap.

Some U.S. analysts warned that Trump could provoke a military confrontation if he presses the Taiwan issue too far.

"China is more likely to let the whole relationship with the United States deteriorate in order to show its resolve on the Taiwan issue," said Jessica Chen Weiss, an associate professor of government at Cornell University and an expert in Chinese nationalism.

"When the decision to end a decades-long practice is made with so little warning and clear communication, it raises the likelihood of misunderstanding and miscalculation and sets the stage for a crisis between the United States and China over Taiwan," Chen Weiss said.

Mike Green, a former top adviser on Asia to former President George W. Bush, said ending the "one China" policy would be a mistake because it would throw the U.S.-China relationship into turmoil and jeopardize Beijing's cooperation on issues such as North Korea.

But Green, who is now with the CSIS think tank, said he does not believe that Trump intends to go that far and there was "logic to serving Beijing notice that he will not be dictated to on issues like Taiwan."

On Sunday, China's top diplomat, State Councilor Yang Jiechi was traveling to U.S. neighbor Mexico, according to the official news agency Xinhua, but Mexican officials could not offer details.

Mexico has been deepening ties with China, which is partly funding a multi-billion dollar wholesale mobile network while China Offshore Oil Corporation took two of the eight blocks of deep water oil fields offered in a historic auction this month.

(Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu, Jeff Mason and Veronica Gomez in Mexico City; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Alan Crosby)

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Trump speaks to Taiwan's leader in move likely to anger China

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK - US President-elect Donald Trump spoke by phone on Friday with President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan, a move that is likely to infuriate China, which considers the self-ruled island its own, and complicate US relations with Beijing.

The conversation was the first such contact with Taiwan by a US president-elect or president since President Jimmy Carter switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 1979, recognizing Taiwan as part of "one China".

Trump said on Twitter that Tsai had initiated the call. "The President of Taiwan CALLED ME today to wish me congratulations on winning the Presidency. Thank you!" he said.

The President of Taiwan CALLED ME today to wish me congratulations on winning the Presidency. Thank you!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2016

Alex Huang, a spokesman for Tsai, said: "Of course both sides agreed ahead of time before making contact."

The two noted that "close economic, political and security ties exist between Taiwan and the United States," the Trump transition team said in a statement. Taiwan's presidential office said the two discussed strengthening bilateral interactions and establishing closer cooperation.

There was no immediate comment from China, which is likely to be angered because it views Taiwan as a renegade province, to be united by force if necessary.

Washington is Taiwan's most important political ally and sole arms supplier, despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties.

"Interesting how the U.S. sells Taiwan billions of dollars of military equipment but I should not accept a congratulatory call," Trump said in another tweet.

Interesting how the U.S. sells Taiwan billions of dollars of military equipment but I should not accept a congratulatory call.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2016

Trump has eschewed tradition in other calls with foreign leaders since he won the US election, prompting the White House to encourage him to make use of the diplomatic expertise and counsel of the State Department.

The call comes at a time of worsened Taiwan-China relations since the election of Tsai's pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) earlier this year.

The White House responded to the call by saying that "longstanding policy" on China and Taiwan had not changed.

"We remain firmly committed to our 'one China' policy," said Ned Price, a national security spokesman for President Barack Obama. "Our fundamental interest is in peaceful and stable cross-Strait relations."

Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway said on CNN that Trump was "well aware of what US policy has been" on Taiwan.

Administration officials said Trump's team did not alert the White House about the call ahead of time.

Randy Schriver, a former deputy assistant secretary of state responsible for East Asia, including Taiwan, under former President George W. Bush said he believed the call was "primarily a courtesy."

"China should have no objection ... They know better than anyone that contact between leaders does not violate a US One China Policy," he said.

"SEAT OF HIS PANTS"

However, Gerrit van der Wees, a former Dutch diplomat who lobbies on behalf of Taiwan, said the call indicated Trump would be less bound by conventions and restrictions in foreign policy and was "signaling a broader change in US policy towards Taiwan."

Advisers to the Republican president-elect have indicated that he is likely to take a more robust policy toward China than Obama, a Democrat, and that Trump plans to boost the US military in part in response to China's increasing power in Asia. However, details of his plans remain scant.

Senator Chris Murphy, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Trump was entitled to change policy, but his approach was potentially dangerous.

"Foreign policy consistency is a means, not an end. It's not sacred. Thus, it's Trump's right to shift policy, alliances, strategy," Murphy, a Democrat, said in a note on Twitter.

But he added: "What has happened in the last 48 hours is not a shift. These are major pivots in foreign policy w/out any plan. That's how wars start."

China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong's Communist forces won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists fled to the island. Beijing has vowed to bring Taiwan under its rule.

Earlier this week Trump spoke to Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and praised him, according to the Pakistani leader's office, as a "terrific guy." Islamabad and Washington have seen relations sour in recent years over US accusations that Pakistan shelters Islamist militants who kill US soldiers in Afghanistan, a charge denied by the South Asian nation.

Also on Friday, Trump invited Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte to the White House next year during what a Duterte aide said was a "very engaging, animated" phone conversation. Duterte has openly insulted Obama, who canceled a planned meeting with him in September.

A statement issued by Trump's transition team made no mention of the invitation. The transition team said that Trump also spoke on Friday to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Winston Lord, who was US ambassador to China from 1985-89 and is a former assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said the strategic importance of Trump's Taiwan call was unclear.

"Like so many things with Trump, who knows? This man is ignorant about foreign policy and is flying by the seat of his pants, so it is difficult to assess the significance.

"Having said that, I have no problem with his talking to Madame Tsai; Taiwan is a good friend and although our relations are unofficial, I think it's important to maintain close bonds with Taiwan."

Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke by telephone on Nov. 14. Xi stressed that cooperation was the only choice for relations between the world's two largest economies, and Trump said that the two had established a "clear sense of mutual respect."

Trump lambasted China throughout the US election campaign, drumming up headlines with pledges to slap 45 percent tariffs on imported Chinese goods and label the country a currency manipulator on his first day in office.

Douglas Paal, a former official of the US National Security Council who served as US representative to Taiwan from 2002-2006, said nothing Trump had said in the campaign suggested he wanted to rebuild the relationship with Taiwan at the expense of the China relationship.

"From the information I have so far, this is a standalone item," Paal said, "but the Chinese will feel the need to make a major protest so there isn't more of this." - With additional reporting by Valerie Volcovici, David Alexander, Yara Bayoumy, John Walcott, Arshad Mohammed, Eric Beech, Jeff Mason and JR Wu

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