Chinese spouse leaves Taiwan hours before scheduled deportation

Taipei, March 25 (CNA) The Chinese wife of a Taiwanese national, who the government ordered deported after she advocated for China's "military unification" of Taiwan, left the country and returned to China on Tuesday evening, hours before the deportation order was to be executed.

At around 7 p.m., Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), accompanied by her husband and three children, arrived at the check-in counter at Taipei Songshan Airport, ready to board a XiamenAir flight scheduled to depart at 8:45 p.m. for the Chinese city of Fuzhou.

Liu's departure came after she said in a television interview on Monday that she had "no plan to leave" Taiwan, a stance she repeated during a press event on Tuesday morning, where she called on the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) to withdraw the deportation order.

After completing the check-in process, Liu told reporters that following discussions with her lawyer, they decided it was best to respect Taiwan's legal procedures.

"I don't want to leave behind a stain that might affect me if I ever wish to return," she said, referring to the forced deportation that was scheduled to take place after midnight on Tuesday, just past the 10-day deadline after she first received the deportation order on March 15.

"Right now, I need to leave with a clear name, and I will return with my head held high," Liu said, emphasizing that her departure was not an admission of wrongdoing.

Liu added that she hopes, when applying to come to Taiwan to reunite with her family in the future, the National Immigration Agency (NIA) and the MOI will handle the matter in accordance with the law, "rather than trying to block me."

Regarding her appeal of the NIA's deportation order to the Supreme Administrative Court, which followed an unsuccessful attempt at the Taipei High Administrative Court, Liu said the legal process had not yet been completed before it was time for her to be deported.

While Liu was delivering her remarks, a group of protesters led by YouTuber Chen Po-yuan (陳柏源) shouted at her and cheered. After Liu finished speaking and headed to the departure hall, the protesters gathered to sing a song.

Liu entered the restricted area of the airport at around 7:30 p.m. after hugging her family and saying goodbye.

Another failed petition

Liu's husband and their three children also filed a petition with the Taipei High Administrative Court, seeking to suspend the deportation order issued against her.

They argued that the MOI's decision was based on an assessment of political speech, raising concerns about its legality. They also said the content on Liu's Douyin account, "Yaya in Taiwan" (亞亞在台灣), which has nearly 500,000 followers, posed no threat to national security.

In a ruling issued Tuesday evening, the court said that Liu's videos -- viewed by many and widely circulated across media platforms -- had clearly sparked significant controversy and heightened polarization in society.

Given these circumstances, her actions could reasonably be seen as posing a potential threat to social stability and having a serious impact on the public interest, the court said.

Reasons for deportation?

Liu's deportation order hinges on a series of videos she posted on social media which, according to the Taiwanese authorities, violated regulations governing Chinese residents living in Taiwan.

These include one in which Liu, commenting on a large-scale Chinese military exercise held around Taiwan in May last year, stated: "Maybe when we wake up tomorrow morning, the island will already be covered with red flags. Just the thought of it makes me happy."

The Act Governing Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area states that a Chinese national "may be deported, or ordered to depart within 10 days" under circumstances including "being considered threat [sic] to the national security or social stability based on sufficient facts."

According to an NIA statement on March 15, Liu's remarks "advocated the elimination of our country's sovereignty" and are "not tolerated by [Taiwanese] society."

MAC take

Asked to define a "threat to national security," Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正), head of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), said Tuesday that the matter surrounding Liu had undergone multiple reviews and that her legal challenge to suspend the deportation order had been rejected by the Taipei High Administrative Court.

"We are acting in accordance with the law," said Chiu, who heads Taiwan's top government agency handling cross-strait affairs.

Commenting on Liu's claim that she only mentioned "unification," not "military unification," Chiu said that many of Liu's videos contain content that "society can easily interpret as promoting military reunification, war, and the destruction of the Republic of China (Taiwan's official name).

"We firmly believe this is not covered by freedom of speech," he added.