Thailand detains Taiwanese citizen over anti-China broadcasts

PHOTO: Taiwan News

A Taiwanese businessman has been detained in Thailand for allegedly helping an underground online radio broadcast aimed at Chinese listeners. The allegations have come from Radio Free Asia (RFA).

But the manager of the online radio station says Chiang Yung-hsin (蔣永新) has nothing to do with illegal broadcasts, according to the Central News Agency.

Police in Bangkok have detained Taiwanese citizen Chiang, who manages a Taiwanese-owned factory in Thailand. The arrest was made on November 22 over allegations of ‘illegal radio broadcasting’.

The Falun Gong station ‘The Sound of Hope’, based in San Francisco but has been making short-wave Chinese-language programs aimed at China for a decade, according to CNA. A station official told RFA that Chiang wasn’t even a volunteer, but that he had helped a volunteer rent a space in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai which could be used for broadcasting equipment.

The Taiwanese man has since reportedly been freed on bail, but he has not been allowed to leave Thailand.

The radio station said most of its programming was devoted to international news and cultural issues, and not to religion, while it had respected Thai legislation. Pressure from China had reportedly moved Thai police to act against Chiang.

Falun Gong is Chinese spiritual practice that has been banned in China amid strong crackdowns on adherents and allegations that it has anti-Communist party sentiments.

SOURCE: Taiwan News, Taipei