The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned an unregistered civil organization in Matsu for signing agreements with a Chinese civil organization under the "one China" principle.
The director of the MAC's Department of Legal Affairs, Jeff Yang (楊家駿), said yesterday that the council has evidence that an illegal civil organization -- the Matsu economy, trade and culture exchange association (馬祖經貿文化交流聯誼會) -- signed an agreement last January with a delegation from China's Mawei (馬尾) for which the "one China" principle was listed as a precondition.
Following the move, a second round of negotiations was pursued in July and details of the agreements were pounded out on Monday night.
According to the council, the delegation was led by Zheng Youguang (鄭有光), who serves as the Chinese Communist Party's Mawei region committee secretary.
The same team applied to come to Matsu last month for sightseeing, but the council found that they had signed another detailed cooperation agreement under the framework of last year's agreement, Yang said.
A local Chinese-language newspaper yesterday revealed the content of the agreement, which outlined five major cooperation plans for building hotels, schools and shopping malls and also for cooperation in shipping and holding exhibitions together.
"MAC personnel tried to stop them from signing the agreement, but they still found other opportunities to sign it anyway," Yang said.
Yang said that the agreement violates regulations which stipulate that Taiwan citizens or organizations are not allowed to ally with any Chinese citizens or organizations without first obtaining government approval from the MAC.
Organizations or individuals found to be guilty of violating the regulations can be fined an amount between NT$100,000 and NT$500,000.
"We will negotiate with other departments of the government to dismiss the organization as soon as possible," Yang added.
The MAC believes that local politicians in Matsu helped make arrangements for the two groups to meet.
Yang said that the case was not unique.
"We've discovered several similar cases before. We've been able to stop some, but there are more we are still working on," he said, declining to give further details.
Yang said the Chinese delegation would be banned from entering Taiwan for a period of time, but did not say how long the ban would last.
According to the newspaper report yesterday, the contents of the agreement include developing a hotel with investment of estimated US$5 million, establishing a vocational school in Mawei with a 3,000 student capacity that would cost some NT$40 million and building a shopping mall for an estimated NT$80 million dollars.
In addition, an exhibition next year has been arranged to promote foods and goods from both sides.
Also, a Fuzhou shipping company formally authorized a company in Matsu to deal with related shipping affairs.
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