Taiwan has called on Beijing and Hong Kong authorities to stop violating the city’s human rights and damaging its democracy, in response to Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai being charged with fraud.

The office of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said on Thursday it was closely monitoring Lai’s case and urged authorities to resolve its disputes through sincere dialogue in order for Hong Kong society to return to calm.

Lai, along with Next Digital’s director Royston Chow and the media group’s administrative director Wong Wai-keung were charged with fraud on Wednesday. The trio is accused of breaching land-lease terms by improperly using Next Digital’s office in Tseung Kwan O.

Chow and Wong were granted bail, while Lai’s application was rejected by the West Kowloon Court on Thursday.

Secretary general of Taiwan’s Executive Yuan Li Meng-yen said the young people of Hong Kong deserved to live in a city that was full of hope, not one that was deprived of freedom and under repressive rule.

Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party deputy secretary general Lin Fei-fan said the Chinese Communist Party had a hand in Lai’s case, along with other recent events such as the mass layoffs of 100 staff at television news channel i-Cable.

Lin also said that the Taiwanese government should consider sanctions against Beijing and Hong Kong, and also upgrade an existing mechanism to help Hongkongers, after three pro-democracy activists — Joshua Wong, Agnes Wong and Ivan Lam — were jailed for their roles during a mass siege of the police headquarters in Wan Chai in June last year.

Hong Kong bookseller Lam Wing-kee, who is currently under self-exile in Taiwan, said he believed the charges against Lai was an order from the Chinese government and was a plan that had been hatched a long time ago. “This is only the beginning of the suppression of democracy activists,” Lam said, adding that he believed Lai would eventually be locked up and “lose his freedom forever.”

Chinese state-media People’s Daily published an article late Wednesday night saying Lai was responsible for causing chaos in Hong Kong, and accused him of trying to collude with foreign, anti-China forces.

Click here for Chinese version

---------------------------------

Apple Daily’s all-new English Edition is now available on the mobile app: bit.ly/2yMMfQE

To download the latest version,

iOS: bit.ly/AD_iOS

Android: bit.ly/AD_android

Or search Appledaily in App Store or Google Play