Taiwan election is make or break for fleeing Hong Kong protesters

TAIPEI - A small but growing number of Hong Kong protesters who fled to Taiwan for safety over the past few months fear an opposition victory in the island's election this week will put them in peril and force them to leave.

The mostly young men and women who came to Taiwan after taking part in increasingly violent protests in support of democracy in Hong Kong have no legal way to gain permanent asylum, but President Tsai Ing-wen's broadly sympathetic government has allowed about 60 of them to temporarily extend their stay.

Some of those protesters fear that support will vanish if the Jan 11 election is won by Han Kuo-yu, the presidential candidate for Taiwan's Kuomintang opposition party, which favours close ties with China.

"If Han Kuo-yu is elected, I will buy a flight ticket and flee to another country right away," a protester in his early 30s who asked only to be identified as Jero told Reuters.

Jero said he flew to Taiwan on a tourist visa days after he took part in the storming of Hong Kong's Legislative Council on July 1 fearing he could be charged with rioting, which carries a maximum prison term of 10 years.



from Asia
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