Taiwanese Traveler Questioned for Six Hours in Shanghai and Abandons Entry

A Taiwanese young man traveling to Shanghai for work gave up entering China after plainclothes officials questioned him for six hours over a job he had held after university at Amnesty International.

According to a social-media post by his parent, customs officials stopped him at the border under an alleged “political involvement” designation and took him to a private room. The officials reportedly asked what duties he had performed, whether he had worked on reports or human-rights advocacy concerning China, Hong Kong, Xinjiang or Tibet, and how the organization was funded. They also questioned his reasons for traveling to China and whether he planned to investigate secretly or meet sensitive local contacts.

Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council said the account matched similar cases it had previously handled, although the family had not formally reported the incident to the government. The council warned that China has targeted overseas NGOs focused on human rights, environmental issues, oversight of public authorities, labor and gender diversity. It said people who once took part in Taiwanese political activities could still face scrutiny or punishment later, even after moving into nonpolitical fields.

A Taiwan official familiar with cross-strait affairs said the reported case suggested that Chinese authorities may hold detailed information on Taiwanese people’s past work. Hung Pu-chao, deputy executive director of Tunghai University’s Graduate Institute of China Studies, said the government should encourage people to report such experiences, organize cases systematically and compare them with earlier personal-data leaks. The findings, he said, should inform clearer travel warnings and guidance for visits to mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau.