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TAIPEI / BEIJING: The Taiwanese government denounced China, citing cheating and manipulation, after Chinese state television broadcast a documentary showing a Taiwanese citizen confessing to visiting Hong Kong to support anti-government protesters there.
China, which claims that Taiwan ruled democratically as its own territory, has repeatedly denounced Taipei for offering support to the Chinese-run Hong Kong protest movement, saying Taiwan’s forces and Hong Kong’s independence are in collusion.
Taiwan says it has a duty to defend democracy and human rights.
On Sunday night, Chinese state television showed a documentary detailing what it said was a confession by Morrison Lee, who was arrested by police in Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong, last year, on suspicion of violating the laws. national security laws.
LEE: Taiwanese detained in China ‘confess’ on state television
State TV said Lee had gone to Hong Kong to support the protesters and then went to Shenzhen to secretly film Chinese paramilitary police.
“I’m very sorry. I did a lot of bad things in the past, perhaps damaging the homeland and the country,” Lee told the show, dressed in prison clothes.
In Taipei, the Mainland Affairs Council labeled the program “complete nonsense.”
“This is malicious political advertising on the part of the other side, trapping one of our own into engaging in espionage activities, deliberately damaging relations across the Taiwan Straits,” he said.
China should stop trying to incriminate Taiwanese citizens, the council added, saying putting Lee on television is contrary to legal process.
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Human rights groups and Western governments have expressed anger at China over previous cases in which suspects were put on state television to confess before their trials.
The espionage allegations come as relations between Taipei and Beijing continue to plummet, with China intensifying military exercises near the island in recent weeks.
Taiwan says it will not provoke China or seek war, but will defend itself and defend its democratic way of life.
