China might be targeting borough wardens and neighborhood chiefs for “united front” tactics via the planned Chinese Taipei Association of Village and Neighborhood Heads, officials and academics have warned.
The association is in the process of being founded and sources have identified its leader as Chin Jung-hui (勤榮輝), warden of Datun Borough (大屯) in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投).
A meeting to discuss issues related to the founding of the organization is scheduled for Friday next week.
The association’s draft charter, which was leaked to the media, says its mission is “to link the borough, village and neighborhood officials’ associations in each county and city to cultivate [a] friendly spirit ... assist in promoting government policy and encourage grassroots participation in international or Chinese regional tourism and exchanges.”
Asked for comment on Monday, Chin said that he knows “right from wrong” and is “not afraid of being targeted for united front work.”
The association’s preparatory committee has 30 members and is to hold its first meeting on Friday next week, Chin said, although he was “unable to recall their names.”
“Borough wardens are elected officials and we represent the public. People should not defame us,” he said.
Taiwan Thinktank researcher Tung Li-wen (董立文) said that China relied on a compliant government under the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to do its united front work.
In recent years, China has given up on intermediaries and has opted to directly cultivate “red power” in Taiwan, Tung said.
However, the government should not prevent the nation’s village and borough officials or students from visiting China, Tung said, adding that “Taiwanese should cross the Strait to see exactly what Chinese Communists are all about.”
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office frequently uses economic incentives, such as free travel arrangements, to butter up local government officials and prominent members of society, a Mainland Affairs Council official said.
Although polls have repeatedly shown that such tactics are ineffective in boosting China’s public image in Taiwan, the office continues to rely on them as a routine part of its work, the official said.
The government does not wish to regulate private initiatives for cross-strait exchange, but it does call on the public to be conscious of the risks of dealing with Chinese officials, the official added.
In July last year, 133 Taipei borough wardens visited Shanghai on a six-day trip, with each reporting NT$15,000 in expenses that they paid out of pocket.
They were received by the office’s Shanghai office and were later photographed with its director, Li Wenhui (李文輝), at a banquet holding a banner that read: “China’s unification is our responsibility.”
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
RSS