’FLAT-OUT CON’:China’s Hunan Provincial governor is breaking the law by promoting investment in China while visiting Taiwan, the TSU said
By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) yesterday alleged that China’s Hunan Provincial Governor Xu Shousheng (徐守盛) has engaged in illegal business promotion during his visit to Taiwan and criticized him for his role in the province’s notorious human rights record.
Xu, who is leading a 400-strong provincial delegation on a one-week visit to Taiwan that began on Monday, has violated Taiwanese law that prohibits Chinese officials from promoting business during their visits, TSU Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) told a press conference.
The governor’s promotion of business and investment opportunities in Hunan was a “flat-out con” because numerous cases had proven that investments by Taiwanese businesspeople in the province have not been protected, Huang said.
Huang cited the case of Luan Yu-ting (欒有廷), whose investment of 20 million yuan (US$3.2 million) was illegally seized by a company owned by the provincial government in 1996, saying that the case remains unresolved.
It was ironic for Xu to publicly guarantee investment protection for Taiwanese, Huang said.
“There is law in China. The problem is that the country does not implement the law,” he said.
The TSU also opposes Xu’s visit because the approval of the trip has violated a legislative resolution, which demands that the government reject all visits by Chinese officials believed to have committed human rights violations.
The human rights record of the province is notorious, Huang said, and there was no better example than the death of Tiananmen Square protest veteran Li Wangyang (李旺陽) in suspicious circumstances in Shaoyang, Hunan Province, on Wednesday last week.
Li was found dead in a hospital ward two days after the anniversary of the beginning of the Chinese government’s crackdown on the 1989 pro-democracy protests. However, human rights groups suspect that Li did not commit suicide as local police have claimed.
Huang urged the Hunan Provincial Government to investigate the real cause of Li’s death.