HK, Taiwan staff pack their bags amid a 'visa war'

Taiwan and Hong Kong are engaged in a "visa war" as Taiwanese authorities have stopped applying to renew visas for its representatives in Hong Kong after the SAR government insisted they sign a declaration upholding the one China principle.

Staff at the SAR's Hong Kong Economic, Trade and Cultural Office in Taipei have returned home after Taiwan declined to renew their visas, Taiwanese newspaper China Times reported.

The Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau did not comment on the allegations yesterday.

This came after Kao Ming-tsun, acting director-general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Hong Kong, left the city on Thursday after refusing to sign the declaration.

Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council told China Times that TECO representatives will protect the office in Hong Kong from political interference in accordance with an agreement between Hong Kong and Taiwan and that Hong Kong authorities shall not set up "unnecessary obstacles" outside mutually agreed norms.

Four out of five top representatives of TECO have returned to Taiwan, including Kao and Lu Chang-shui, the former top representative of office whose visa application had been left pending since 2018.

The Mainland Affairs Council said that they do not expect Hong Kong will extend the working visas of another batch of Hong Kong-based staff whose working visa will expire by the end of the year and next year. It added that TECO would "stand firm to the last moment."

In response to whether TECO representatives' working visas were denied due to their refusal to sign the declaration, the Immigration Department said the government would not comment on or publicize information regarding individual cases.

"In handling each application, the Immigration Department acts in accordance with the relevant laws and policies and decides whether to approve the application or not after careful consideration of the circumstances of each case," a department spokesman said.

Separately, SAR officials responded to US sanctions and the Hong Kong Autonomy Act .

Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po wrote on his blog yesterday that the "so-called sanctions by the United States had caused some worries in the market, but their actual impact on the Hong Kong economy is limited."

Chan also slammed the United States for its "double standards and hegemonic behavior, saying it "often upholds national security in its own country, but it does not allow other countries to protect their own security and rights legally."

Chief Secretary for Administration Matthew Cheung Kin-chung also expressed his opposition to the act, writing on his blog that Washington had used human rights and democracy as an excuse to attack Beijing.

"The US has clearly demonstrated its double standards by rationalizing the measures to be adopted under the act and the executive order on the ground of safeguarding its national security, while claiming that the enactment of national security legislation by the central authority for the HKSAR undermines the HKSAR's high degree of autonomy," Cheung wrote.