Taiwan claims entrapment after China shows spy 'confession'
12 October, 2020
Taiwan's government has denounced China, citing entrapment and manipulation, after Chinese state television aired a documentary showing a Taiwanese citizen confessing to visiting Hong Kong to aid anti-government protesters there.
China, which claims democratically ruled Taiwan as its territory, has repeatedly denounced Taipei for offering support to Chinese-administered Hong Kong's protest movement, saying the forces of Taiwan and Hong Kong independence are colluding.
Taiwan says it includes a duty to stand up for democracy and human rights.
Late Sunday, Chinese state television set showed a documentary detailing what it said was a confession by Morrison Lee, who was simply arrested by police in Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong, last year, on suspicion of breaching national security laws.
State television said Lee had opted to Hong Kong to aid the protesters, and had then gone to Shenzhen to secretly film Chinese paramilitary police.
"I'm very sorry. I did many bad, wrong things previously, perhaps harming the motherland and the country," Lee told the programme, dressed up in prison garb.
In Taipei, the Mainland Affairs Council labelled the show "complete nonsense".
"That is malicious political hyping up by the other side, entrapping one of our people into participating in spying activities, deliberately damaging relations across the Taiwan Strait," it said.
China should quit to frame Taiwanese citizens, the council added, saying putting Lee on television set was contrary to the legal process.
Rights groups and Western governments have expressed anger at China for previous instances where suspects have been put on state tv set to confess before their trials.
The spying accusations come as relations between Taipei and Beijing continue steadily to nosedive, with China stepping up military drills nearby the island in recent weeks.
Taiwan says you won't provoke China or seek war, but that it'll defend itself and stand up for its democratic life-style.
Source: