Taiwanese teacher detained in China since May: Official

Taipei, Aug. 7 (CNA) A Taiwanese national living and teaching in China has been detained since May, possibly for religious reasons, Luo Wen‑jia (羅文嘉), secretary‑general of the semi‑official Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), said Friday.

Luo revealed the case at a regular media briefing, as part of the government's recent campaign to highlight the risks of traveling to China, especially after Beijing adopted the Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress in July.

He refused, however, to disclose details of the case out of respect for the individual's privacy, but noted that the Taiwanese teacher has lived in China for over 10 years.

The individual's family reported the case to the SEF on June 1, and within a week the SEF contacted its Chinese counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), but it has yet to receive a reply, according to Luo.

Communications between Taipei and Beijing, previously conducted through the SEF and the ARATS to avoid official contacts, have been suspended since 2016, when Beijing cut off exchanges after the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) returned to power.

The SEF has learned from other sources that the individual was a practitioner of I‑Kuan Tao, and the detention may be linked to religious beliefs, Luo said.

Two other Taiwanese were also taken by China's public security officers along with the individual, but the pair were later released, he said, but he did not elaborate on how the two might be linked with the detained individual.

Taipei has issued repeated warnings about travel to China starting even before Beijing adopted its ethnic unity law, citing earlier detentions of Taiwanese nationals and expanding surveillance measures as signs of rising risks of visits there.

According to Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, the agency officially responsible for handling relations with China and the supervisory agency of the SEF, 154 Taiwanese had been reported missing in China, 32 had been held for questioning and 216 had been detained from Jan. 1, 2024 through July 22 this year.

Of those detained, 134 were linked to fraud cases, 58 to other criminal cases, 23 to religious activities and one to a national security case, according to the MAC.

The MAC has not said how many of those who went missing or who were detained have since turned up or been freed.

A total of 1.85 million Taiwanese traveled to China in the first six months of 2026, up 21.5 percent from the same period in 2025, according to Taiwan Tourism Administration statistics.