Beijing has launched a campaign of religious infiltration aimed at compromising election integrity and personal data, a national security official said on Thursday, calling on Taiwanese to beware of temple events linked to China.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office and “united front” departments are targeting religious groups in Taiwan in a bid to co-opt borough-level elected officials and grassroots groups, using folk religious events as a smokescreen, the official said on condition of anonymity.
An infiltrated religious event can take the form of an invitation to visit the Chinese counterpart of a Taiwanese temple and to go sightseeing, they said, adding that Chinese officials use these trips to spread propaganda and build networks.
Photo: Taipei Times file
People who go on these tours could be asked to support or fund political candidates favored by Beijing, they said.
Since Chinese religious groups answer to the Chinese State Administration for Religious Affairs, which is part of the United Front Work Department of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee, nothing is spontaneous or unplanned in China’s organized religion, the official said.
Beijing was known for dispatching the likeness of Chinese temple gods to tour Taiwan as an excuse to buy off the support of local religious groups, with money funneled via Taiwanese entrepreneurs working in China, they said.
The goal was to use Taiwanese temples as a front for the distribution of Chinese propaganda, the official said.
Most, if not all, of the parent temples are fake, because China systematically razed temples and shrines during the Cultural Revolution, they said, adding that the rebuilt modern temples have no real relationship with their predecessors.
Beijing recently started closing down and destroying Buddhist temples under the pretext of COVID-19 measures, the official said, citing religious freedom magazine Bitter Winter.
China’s local-level Taiwan affairs offices often invite Taiwanese to participate in religious ceremonies via teleconference, circumventing any laws and regulations that might impede interactions, they said.
Genuine devotion and piety are almost wholly absent in Chinese organized religion, as it has been eroded to simply performing rituals, they said.
Saying that Taiwanese and Chinese religions share the same roots is “emotional blackmail,” the official said.
Chinese organized religion has no theology or faithful to take part in them, because they were created solely for political purposes, they added.
China’s provincial Taiwan affairs offices and state-run think tanks organized fake academic conferences to spread claims that Taiwanese religion is indivisible from Chinese religion so Taiwanese temple officials could be invited, they said.
Some Chinese temples would issue ritual seals, certificates and icons of temple gods to Taiwanese temples to influence and indoctrinate Taiwanese at the grassroots level, the official said.
Beijing recently organized a slew of activities in which gifts were given to Taiwanese in exchange for the latter’s voluntary surrender of personal information, biometric data and banking information, they said.
This creates gaps in national and personal security, as China could use the information for intelligence purposes, the official said.
Cambodia and Myanmar-based telecommunication fraud groups have lately been attempting to initiate contact with Taiwanese temples, often using personal information temple personnel revealed during their visits to China, they said.
Since Beijing’s efforts to infiltrate religious groups in Taiwan partly are a part of its strategy to meddle in the nation’s elections, Taiwanese implicated in these activities risk contravening the Anti-infiltration Act (反滲透法), the official said.
Under China’s National Security Law amendments promulgated in April, Chinese customs officials are authorized to check the phones and devices of anyone visiting the country, they said.
Several Taiwanese who accepted an invitation to lecture or speak at Chinese events have also been interrogated or detained, the official said, adding that it shows Taiwanese travelers would not be protected from offenses against privacy, freedom and personal safety.
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