Eight borough wardens may have breached the law by accepting positions in the Chinese government, the Mainland Affairs Council said on Saturday.
China has invited Taiwanese to take up posts as “community director assistants,” and among those who have allegedly accepted a position is Tseng Ning-i (曾寧旖), warden of Zhongshun Borough (忠順) in Taipei’s Wenshan District (文山), the council said.
A recent report in the Chinese Communist Party-run People’s Daily said that 66 Taiwanese have taken up posts in Chinese-controlled Fujian Province’s Xiamen City as community director assistants, and that the province’s Pingtan County is seeking to hire Taiwanese to act as neighborhood committee directors.
Photo: Chung Li-hua, Taipei Times
The report did not list Taiwanese who have been appointed, but a China News Service report said that Tseng has been jointly appointed as director of Pingtan’s Shanglou Village (上樓) and as deputy director of the county’s women’s association.
Tseng was awarded the International Women’s Day Red Flag award for accepting the post, the China News Service report said.
The council said that for Taiwanese to accept government positions in China, even at the village or community level, is in contravention of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), adding that it would investigate the matter further.
The government had already made it clear that it is illegal to accept village and community-level posts in China last year after finding that 35 Taiwanese had been appointed to posts in Xiamen’s Haicang District, the council said.
Those found taking up posts in contravention of the law can be fined between NT$100,000 and NT$500,000, it said.
Despite complaints from the Taiwanese government, Xiamen officials are continuing to recruit Taiwanese, the council said, adding that candidates for such posts are required “to recognize the ‘1992 consensus,’ and to support peaceful cross-strait development and the rejuvenation of the great Chinese people.”
Asked on Saturday about her appointments in China, Tseng said that she travels to Pingtan for a few days each month to share her community administration experience with people there.
She said her title is “merely a formality” and that her role there is neither full-time nor salaried.
She added that she only received compensation in the form of airfare, food, travel expenses and stipends for giving talks.
“We need more exchanges at the grassroots level to better understand each other,” Tseng said.
Deputy Minister of the Interior Chen Tsung-yen (陳宗彥) said a proper investigation is needed to determine the validity of the Chinese news reports and whether other Taiwanese politicians are employed in China.
China is aware that Taiwanese law prohibits the appointments, but continues to recruit people through travel agencies, he said.
The appointments are part of China’s “united front” tactics and are aimed at swaying public opinion toward China, the council said, urging Taiwanese to follow national laws and safeguard national security.
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