Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Vice Chairman Andrew Hsia (夏立言) would lead a delegation to the Straits Forum in China this week, the party said yesterday.
Lin Kuan-yu (林寬裕), head of the KMT’s Culture and Communications Committee, said the visit would follow Taiwan’s regulations governing people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
The Straits Forum, an annual conference between Taiwan and China, started in 2009 to promote grassroots interactions, economic and trade exchanges, and cultural integration.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Hsia attended the meeting last year via videoconference due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The KMT would participate in the forum in its capacity as a political party and a private organization to conduct exchanges between Taiwan and China in a bid to benefit people on both sides and help pursue peace, Lin said.
During the trip, Hsia would meet with Taiwanese living in China, including students and investors, and relay their opinions and concerns to Chinese agencies, Lin said.
Hsia is scheduled to depart for China on Friday and return to Taiwan on June 19 with his delegation, which includes representatives from the party’s China affairs division, think tanks and grassroots and youth divisions, the KMT said.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office on May 31 said that the forum is to open in China’s Fujian Province on Friday.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday said in a statement that while the government encourages exchanges between people in Taiwan and China in an appropriate and orderly manner, it opposes any political maneuvers and “united front” propaganda from China.
The Straits Forum is a “united front” platform that China uses to spread sentiment against Taiwanese independence and facilitate unification, the MAC said, adding that the government’s stance is not to allow Taiwan to jointly hold the forum and not to allow China to extend the forum’s activities to Taiwan.
Central government officials are barred from participating in the Straits Forum and the MAC would not be happy if local governments were to send anybody to the conference, it said.
Taiwanese are also not allowed to join any “democratic negotiations” with China or participate in “one country, two systems” activities, because it could damage Taiwan’s national security, it added.
The MAC urged Taiwanese to remain vigilant about their own safety while in China following the introduction in April of a revised counter-espionage law that means foreign visitors, including Taiwanese, could be arrested under the banner of protecting national security.
It also called for people in Taiwan to keep a close eye on China’s strategies that aim to polarize and infiltrate the nation, which would help safeguard Taiwan’s sovereignty, and the values of freedom and democracy.
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