Taiwan blocks Hong Kong immigrants over KPMG China and Cathay Pacific hyperlinks

Taiwan authorities have cited working for the China arm of Large 4 audit agency KPMG and for airline Cathay Pacific as causes to reject immigration functions from Hong Kong residents, amid a tightening of controls prompted by nationwide safety issues.

Immigration consultants stated Taiwan’s nationwide safety company stepped up vetting of Hong Kong residents’ functions to stay within the nation following a surge of functions prompted by the Chinese language territory’s suppression of pro-democracy protests in 2019.

China, which claims Taiwan as its territory, has threatened to take it by drive if Taipei resists unification indefinitely and has elevated army exercise across the island lately.

Attraction choices for Taiwan residency functions over the previous yr revealed a number of cases of Hong Kong residents being rejected due to present or former employers, together with monetary establishments with mainland Chinese language traders similar to tech group Alibaba.

“Many Hong Kongers hoped to maneuver to Taiwan after 2019 as a consequence of nationwide safety [controls] in Hong Kong, however now Taiwan is rejecting them for nationwide safety causes,” stated Shirley Cheung of consultancy Formosa Immigration, which has places of work in Hong Kong and Taipei.

One Hong Konger, a former worker of KPMG in Hong Kong who utilized for Taiwan residency as a talented migrant, was rejected in July over nationwide safety issues.

Taiwanese officers described KPMG China as an entity that served “primarily mainland Chinese language folks” and was perceived to have a “robust mainland Chinese language” part. The officers additionally cited the applicant’s present position as authorized counsel for Hong Kong fintech firm WeLab, which counts Alibaba amongst its traders, as a cause for the rejection.

Final month, Taiwanese officers additionally cited nationwide safety concerns in upholding the rejection of an software for everlasting residency as an funding immigrant by an individual who labored for Cathay Pacific’s catering providers arm within the Nineties.

The officers wrote in enchantment rulings revealed on-line by the federal government that Cathay Pacific’s main shareholders included state-owned Air China. The applicant’s private investments in Taiwan have been additionally “problematic”, they added.

Former and present workers at Chinese language state banks, funding group CLSA, and at Hong Kong-listed telecommunications firm PCCW — managed by native billionaire Richard Li — additionally had residency appeals rejected over comparable points.

WeLab stated the corporate was “based and headquartered in Hong Kong with a number of fintech companies throughout Asia”. KPMG China, Cathay Pacific, CLSA and PCCW didn’t instantly reply for remark.

Taiwan has tightened screening of funding from Hong Kong lately after Chinese language-controlled corporations and Chinese language particular person traders used Hong Kong corporations or private identities to avoid bans and checks utilized to funding from China.

Taiwan additionally topics residency functions from Hong Kongers to a safety assessment. Candidates are sometimes rejected in the event that they have been born on the Chinese language mainland or labored for presidency establishments, the Communist social gathering, army or different entities with mainland hyperlinks.

Taiwan’s cabinet-level China coverage physique, the Mainland Affairs Council, stated some immigration officers had dealt with some instances with “extreme” nationwide safety issues, however that this was not taking place.

“Whereas such hyperlinks increase the extent of the assessment to make sure there is no such thing as a threat to our nationwide safety, these hyperlinks themselves won’t ever be the explanation for having your software denied,” stated Chiu Chui-cheng, MAC deputy minister. “We hope that some failed particular person instances won’t discredit our efforts to assist Hong Kongers who need to come and stay in Taiwan.”

The Taiwanese authorities stated the principle cause for rejecting Hong Kongers’ residency requests was fraudulent functions for immigration by means of funding that have been filed with the assistance of consultants.

The variety of Hong Kongers permitted to reside or completely settle in Taiwan jumped practically 70 per cent to 12,389 in 2020. The variety of permits elevated to a different historic excessive of 12,858 in 2021.