Taiwan Urges China for Answers on Missing Activist Who Attended Hong Kong Protests
Taiwan Urges China for Answers on Missing Activist Who Attended Hong Kong Protests
(Bloomberg) -- Taiwan has urged China to provide information on the whereabouts of a Taiwanese activist who went missing after joining pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong earlier this month.
Morrison Lee traveled to Hong Kong for a vacation on Aug. 18 and attended one of the city’s anti-extradition protests, Archer Chen, chief of Fangliao Township in the southern Taiwan county of Pingtung, told Bloomberg News. Lee serves as an unpaid adviser to the township, according to Chen. Lee was scheduled to travel to the southern mainland city of Shenzhen for business two days later.
Lee’s family says they have not heard from him since he entered the mainland, Chiu Chui-cheng, deputy minister of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, said at a briefing Thursday. Taiwan has asked mainland Chinese and Hong Kong authorities to help look for Lee, but the Chinese authorities have not responded, Chiu said earlier Thursday.
Beijing is required by bilateral agreements to inform Taipei if a Taiwanese citizen is detained in China, but the government hasn’t received any communication so far, according to Chiu.
News of Lee’s disappearance was first reported by Taiwanese media earlier Thursday.
The disappearance comes as anti-government protests in Hong Kong approach their 13th straight weekend, as opposition to controversial legislation easing extraditions to the mainland has grown into a wider pro-democracy movement. There has been widespread support for the protesters in Taiwan.
The democratically run island’s China-skeptic president, Tsai Ing-wen, has frequently spoken out in support of the demonstrators. Chinese authorities, meanwhile, have identified Taiwan and the U.S. as outside “black hands” supporting the protests.
To contact the reporter on this story: Debby Wu in Taipei at dwu278@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: John Liu at jliu42@bloomberg.net, ;Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Samson Ellis, Karen Leigh
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