The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese detained in China in the past 14 months, 52 of whom went missing or faced restricted movement, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said on Tuesday.
Those who work in government agencies or institutions in Taiwan are often questioned upon arrival in China and have their personal items searched, Chiu said, adding that those who support the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) are not exempt from such checks. While in the past China would generally notify authorities in Taiwan of such detentions, it no longer does due to a political impasse, he said.
A set of 22 guidelines published by Beijing on June 21 last year also allows Chinese courts to try people in absentia, seize assets and issue the death penalty, among other measures, to punish so-called “Taiwanese independence separatists,” which significantly increase the risks for Taiwanese visiting China, he said.
The MAC raised its travel alert for China (including Hong Kong and Macau) to “orange” on June 26 last year, following China’s announcement of the new measures, which it said “pose a serious threat to the personal safety of Taiwanese citizens who travel.”
Despite such warnings, a survey conducted by the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association in December last year found that fewer than 40 percent of respondents aged 20 to 24 supported amending laws to punish pro-China content creators in Taiwan. The survey was conducted after authorities discovered that Beijing was paying Taiwanese influencers to assist its “united front” efforts.
The Financial Times last month wrote that an increase in TikTok use was fueling a change in how Taiwanese young people identified, with a decrease in those identifying as “Taiwanese,” as opposed to “Chinese.” It was also causing young Taiwanese to be less willing to resist China, with students at one school saying that “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the report said.
The lack of awareness of the threat that the Chinese Communist Party poses to democracy and personal freedom is a danger for young people who visit China.
Beijing has vowed to implement its guidelines against “Taiwanese independence,” but its criteria for defining it are ambiguous. Anyone could be detained for seemingly innocuous behavior, such as writing comments on social media or participating in an event China dislikes.
The changes in young people’s views on China also have implications for Taiwan’s defense and national security, since Taiwanese could be compelled to share information with Chinese agents, or capitulate when called to serve in the military.
It has been said that China hopes to achieve unification through “peaceful means” including cognitive warfare, since there is no guarantee that an armed invasion would be successful.
The KMT and Taiwan People’s Party attaining a combined legislative majority and young Taiwanese’s increasing willingness to engage with China show that such cognitive warfare efforts are achieving some measure of success. The government must counter those efforts to ensure that the nation does not lose its democratic freedoms.
China has promised Taiwan “a high degree of autonomy” under its “one country, two systems” for unification, but one need only look at Hong Kong under that system. Beijing promised Hong Kong would maintain a free press and independent judiciary under the terms of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, but the territory has already lost both.
To counter Beijing’s propaganda, the government should implement measures to boost young people’s media literacy and awareness of disinformation. It could also launch public service campaigns on social media about Taiwanese who have been detained in China so young Taiwanese get the message: China is not a safe place.
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