Critics lashed out yesterday at several well-known pan-blue political talking heads attending a two-day academic conference in China at the invitation of Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) Director Wang Yi (王毅), saying the conference was a Chinese strategy to spread its “united front” tactics.
“United front” refers to tactics and efforts employed by Beijing aimed at extending its influence in Taiwan to aid unification.
The Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported yesterday that Wang had invited a handful of pan-blue political commentators to the Hangzhou conference that started yesterday to get an inside scoop on Taiwan under the guise of an academic meet.
Wang, formerly Beijing’s ambassador to Japan, was named TAO head on June 3 and has reportedly been eager to familiarize himself with Taiwan’s political climate.
“These pan-blue pundits are foolish to accept the invitation. They will just be used. It is obvious that the Beijing government is using them as tools to accelerate unification,” said Allen Houng (洪裕宏), convener of the Constitutional Reform Alliance and a regular on pan-green political talk shows.
Houng said that despite improving relations between Taiwan and China, the two countries are still technically engaged in hostilities.
“They [the pan-blue commentators] should be wise and politically sensitive enough to know that what they are doing is inappropriate. They claim they are there to speak for Taiwan, but do you think Wang, a high ranking Chinese official, would really heed to their advice?” Houng said, adding that his pan-blue counterparts were mingling with the enemy.
Chang You-hua (張友驊), a frequent guest on pan-blue political talk shows, downplayed the conference as an opportunity to “exchange views.”
“During the eight years of Democratic Progressive Party administration, Beijing made several erroneous judgment calls. The Chinese want to have a better understanding of the workings of Taiwanese politics, so they can make more precise moves in the future,” said Chang, adding that he declined the invitation because of personal reasons.
Huang Kuang-ching (黃光芹), another pan-blue commentator, said she was not invited, and even if she were invited, she would not go, because “I am a communism-phobe.”
“Why would I go to a conference where my freedom of speech would be curtailed?” she asked.
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