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Joshua Wong asks Taiwanese to support Hong Kong protests

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Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong, center, talks to the press with Taiwan Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia, right, after meeting DPP political leaders in Taipei, Taiwan, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2019. AP-Yonhap
Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong, center, talks to the press with Taiwan Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia, right, after meeting DPP political leaders in Taipei, Taiwan, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2019. AP-Yonhap

By Lawrence Chung

Joshua Wong Chi-fung has urged the Taiwanese people and politicians to stage a mass protest ahead of mainland China's National Day to step up the pressure on Beijing over Hong Kong.

The activist, who arrived in Taiwan on Tuesday for a two-day visit, said he hoped to gain support from the government of President Tsai Ing-wen and the three main political parties.

Anti-government protests have been staged across the city for the past 13 weeks, sparked by a now shelved extradition bill that would have allowed criminal suspects to be sent to the mainland for trial.

"The problems today, including [the failure] to retract the extradition bill, police brutality and the [absence] of general elections are not what [Hong Kong Chief Executive] Carrie Lam can deal with as the decision rests with Xi Jinping," said Wong, secretary general of pro-democracy party Demosisto.

Wong said the Hong Kong government was considering "imposing a curfew to suppress Hong Kong people" after Lam said her administration would consider using all the laws at their disposal, including colonial-era emergency powers.

The ordinance, last used during the 1967 leftist riots, grants the chief executive authority to "make any regulations whatsoever which he [or she] may consider desirable in the public interest" in the event of "emergency or public danger".

Taiwanese people wave Chinese national flag and hold slogans reading ''Get out! Hong Kong Independence'' outside of Taiwan Democratic Progressive Party as Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong meets DPP political leaders in Taipei, Taiwan, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2019. AP-Yonhap
Taiwanese people wave Chinese national flag and hold slogans reading ''Get out! Hong Kong Independence'' outside of Taiwan Democratic Progressive Party as Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong meets DPP political leaders in Taipei, Taiwan, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2019. AP-Yonhap

"We hope friends from different parties in Taiwan can join us in opposing the decree and the use of white terror to pressure Hong Kong people," Wong told a press conference in Taipei.

"I also hope friends in Taiwan who are outside the political system will stage a mass protest in Taiwan before October 1 [China's National Day] to express their support for the people in Hong Kong."

In addition to Taiwan, he said supporters in Britain, the US, Canada, Australia, Japan and Korea will also stage mass protests to show their support.

Wong said that around 1,000 people had been arrested by the Hong Kong police and said he was visiting the island to examine ways it could help Hongkongers who felt they needed to flee the city.

"I hope the authorities and the parliament in Taiwan can work out some sort of practical legislation or measures for the protection of Hong Kong people," Wong said.

He also said he hoped this could be done before the presidential election in January in case there was a change in government.

Tsai, from the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, has already expressed strong support for the anti-extradition bill protests and instructed the relevant authorities to work on plans to help Hongkongers who need protection to settle on the island.

On Tuesday the state-owned mainland tabloid Global Times described Wong as part of a new "generation of traitors" for urging the US Congress to back the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, which would allow the president to penalise mainland officials and require the government to assess the city's level of autonomy each year.

Wong was visiting Taiwan in the company of Hong Kong lawmaker Eddie Chu Hoi-dick and Lester Shum, former deputy secretary general of the Hong Kong Federation of Students. The three were invited by the Taichung-based Light Foundation, founded by former transport minister Lin Chia-lung.




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