China’s “united front” efforts targeting Taiwan are ubiquitous, and include the employment of Internet celebrities to carry out infiltration campaigns on social media, members of the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) Advisory Committee said yesterday.
The council released the minutes of a committee meeting on China’s “legal war” against Taiwan and possible response measures.
The “legal war” aims to unilaterally define jurisdiction over Taiwan to legitimize annexing the nation based on Beijing’s so-called “democratic negotiations,” while preparing to negate Taiwanese legislation, the minutes said.
Photo: Chung Li-hua, Taipei Times
Committee members and academics who attended the meeting were not named in the minutes.
The National Security Law imposed by Beijing in Hong Kong is a model for China to draw up Taiwan-related regulations, the minutes said.
Globally, Beijing would continue to squeeze Taiwan’s international space and block the nation from joining international organizations as a sovereign state, they said.
On a civic level, Beijing aims to promote economic, social and cultural integration by linking identity documents for Taiwanese to China’s civic rights, it said.
To grasp the changes in China’s legislation related to Taiwan, the government should watch the implementation of Hong Kong’s National Security Law and the developments in the territory, the minutes said.
China’s legal war against Taiwan operates in tandem with other public opinion, psychological and diplomatic tactics, a committee member said.
Beijing has been employing Internet celebrities to wage “united front” and infiltration campaigns against Taiwan on video platforms or attack certain targets through social media, such as WeChat, in an attempt to circumvent legal regulations, the member said.
Taiwan should prepare countermeasures and share information with international partners to promote joint defense and security cooperation, the member added.
China’s legal war against Taiwan is ubiquitous, another committee member said, citing as examples Chinese People’s Liberation Army aircraft continuing to harass Taiwan and Beijing publicly denying the existence of the median line of the Taiwan Strait.
By rejecting the median line, Beijing is extending its dominion over Taiwan and unilaterally changing the cross-strait “status quo,” just as it enacted the National Security Law in Hong Kong and changed the territory’s “one country, two systems” framework, they said.
In addition to downgrading Taiwan’s international status, Beijing also purports to represent the nation’s interests in international disputes, as shown by its response to the arbitration of territorial disputes in the South China Sea, they said, adding that Taiwan should more actively express its objection to Beijing’s maneuvers.
Another committee member said that China has never abided by the rule of law, but only uses laws to achieve its political aims.
Beijing’s regulations about actual and claimed dominions are different, evidenced by the varied strength and flexibility of its National Security Law enacted in Hong Kong and its “Anti-Secession” Law targeting Taiwan, which deserves the nation’s unwavering attention, they said.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification