Taiwan has deported two Chinese nationals accused of harassing a group of pro-Hong Kong protestors on Oct. 1, which was the 75th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) taking power.
“The government will take immediate and strict action against any mainland Chinese who come to Taiwan and engage in illegal or irregular behavior that endangers our national security and social stability,” the Taiwanese government stated on Oct. 3.
Hong Kong Outlanders said it had arranged a small protest on Oct. 1 in Taiwan’s capital city of Taipei, where group members were then verbally harassed and pushed around by a group of Chinese people.
Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council said that two Chinese nationals, a couple, who were involved in the incident have been deported and had their entry permits revoked. They had applied to enter Taiwan in late September to visit a relative, whom officials said had already left Taiwan to return to China in July, according to local media.
Immigration officials took the couple to the Taoyuan International Airport, and they boarded a plane to China before noon on Oct. 3.
Taiwan National Immigration Agency officials said the couple knew they were violating temporary entry permit rules, and the Mainland Affairs Council said the couple was “abusing” the entry permit system, and said it would review future applications more strictly.
Taiwan itself faces an increasingly tense relationship with the CCP, which sees Taiwan as its territory to be reunified, by force if necessary. The CCP has never ruled Taiwan, which has its own democratic system of governance.
On Oct. 1, CCP leader Xi Jinping repeated calls to “achieve the complete reunification of the motherland,” naming Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan.