A unification-themed show commissioned by a Chinese government-affiliated organization is to tour Kaohsiung and three counties administered by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) next month, a source said yesterday.
The tour by the Beijing-based China Coal Mine Art Troupe has been registered with the government as a “cross-strait art education exchange” activity, the source said on condition of anonymity.
The show, titled The Love of a Chinese Family, a Celebration of Taiwan (親情中華, 歡聚台灣), will be open to the public free of charge, the source said.
The tour was organized by the Beijing-based All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, which is affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), they said.
The federation cooperated with Taiwan-based China Youth Mainland Research Education Foundation, which has arranged pro-unification events in China for Taiwanese students, the source said.
Federation chairman Wan Lijun (萬立駿) was a committee member at the CCP’s 19th National Congress, according to the federation’s Web site, the source said.
The CCP last year mandated that all “united front” activities go through its United Front Work Department, adding that all activities related to overseas Chinese communities would fall under the jurisdiction of the federation, the source said.
The Taiwanese foundation is an affiliate of China Youth Corps, which in turn is affiliated with the KMT, and previously shared the same address with the corps, they said.
The troupe used to be directly subordinate to the CCP’s State Administration of Work Safety and in its early years performed for CCP officials at the party’s headquarters on Yangjia Mountain in Shaanxi Province.
The troupe is to make its first appearance in Kaohsiung on Wednesday next week at the Kaohsiung Cultural Affairs Bureau, the source said.
It is set to give performances at the Puli Art Center in Nantou County, Miaoli County’s Chung Cheng Hall (苗栗縣政府中正堂) and at the Hsinchu County Government Arts Center, they said, adding that the organizers were hoping to attract about 3,000 to the showes, including students and teachers.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lai Jui-lung (賴瑞隆) yesterday called on national security officials to investigate the people involved in hosting the troupe and arranging the venues.
The KMT and the corps should explain the purpose of hosting pro-unification shows and cooperating with the CCP, he said.
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