China’s Taiwan Affairs Office today listed Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) and Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) as “Taiwan independence diehards,” banning them and their families from entering China and its territories.
The sanctions also ban businesses associated with the “separatists” from operating in China, applicable for life.
Office spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華) told a news conference that Liu and Cheng have committed numerous pro-Taiwan independence acts, angering people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Many people have reported them to the office and called for them to be punished, Chen said.
Chen accused Liu of promoting “fallacious Taiwan independence separatist views,” suppressing people who support cross-strait exchanges, persecuting Chinese spouses living in Taiwan and obstructing cross-strait travel and communication.
Cheng has been advocating for Taiwanese independence, compiling pro-independence teaching materials, “poisoning the minds” of young people and hindering cross-strait educational exchanges, Chen said.
Chen welcomed people to provide more evidence of Liu and Cheng’s crimes.
The office also listed Chen Shu-yi (陳舒怡) of the High Prosecutors’ Office as an accomplice in separatist activities.
Chen Shu-yi coordinates many of Taiwan’s major national security cases, acting as a liaison among prosecutors, national security agencies, military, police and the coast guard, the High Prosecutors’ Office Web site says.
National Cheng Kung University political science professor Hung Chin-fu (洪敬富) said that China views the Ministry of Education as pursuing “de-Sinicization.”
This highly targeted round of punishment, aimed at leaders of education and internal affairs, shows China is trying harder to assert its claimed jurisdiction over Taiwan, Hung said.
Targeting a high prosecutor is intended to intimidate the judicial community, undermine judicial independence and represents a blatant use of political pressure to influence Taiwan’s judicial system, he said.
By targeting “pro-independence” officials across the education, interior and judicial sectors, China is framing the Democratic Progressive Party government as persecuting Chinese spouses and its judiciary as suppressing dissent, the professor said.
China is signaling its claim over Taiwan to the international community and warning that any officials who do not meet China’s expectations would be punished, he added.
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