The government has blocked key Chinese officials involved in Taiwan-related affairs from visiting Taiwan in response to China’s 22 judicial “guidelines” that penalize “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” an official familiar with cross-strait relations said today.
Exceptions would only be made if the Chinese leaders are willing to meet with Taiwanese officials from the Mainland Affairs Council and Straits Exchange Foundation, the official said.
The council previously blocked the directors of the Shanghai and Hangzhou branches of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) from visiting Taiwan to participate in the Taipei-Shanghai Twin City and Two Lakes forums respectively.
Photo: Reuters
“Safety needs to be the first priority of any exchange,” the official said.
The 22 judicial “guidelines” put forth by the office make it dangerous for any Taiwanese to visit China, preventing healthy and orderly exchanges, they said.
China has turned “exchange” into a tool to accomplish its “united front” goals, preventing positive interactions within cross-strait exchanges, they added.
To counter these “guidelines,” the government has prohibited leaders of China’s TAO and United Front Work Department, as well as officials from significant Chinese cities, from visiting Taiwan, the official said.
The government would only allow these officials to visit Taiwan if they are willing to meet with Taiwanese government agencies, they said.
If the officials only want to meet with local groups, they would be prohibited from visiting due to China’s continued coercion of Taiwan through the 22 “guidelines,” the official said.
Earlier this year, the TAO set up a mailbox on its Web site for the public to report “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists.”
Although the office mentioned receiving hundreds of reports, analysts say that people are likely indiscriminately and arbitrarily accusing people of supporting Taiwanese independence.
Analysts believe that many people in China use false reporting to frame others, following the Chinese Communist Party’s example of using such tactics to coerce and manipulate.
Taking Hong Kong as an example, there were 750,000 national security reports within only four years, but most of them were tied to business-related competition.
This measure calling the public to report Taiwanese separatists significantly impacts Taiwanese businesses and Taiwanese people in China, analysts have said.
Travel agencies in Taiwan are working to secure alternative flights for travelers bound for New Zealand for the Lunar New Year holiday, as Air New Zealand workers are set to strike next week. The airline said that it has confirmed that the planned industrial action by its international wide-body cabin crew would go ahead on Thursday and Friday next week. While the Auckland-based carrier pledged to take reasonable measures to mitigate the impact of the workers’ strike, an Air New Zealand flight arriving at Taipei from Auckland on Thursday and another flight departing from Taipei for Auckland on Saturday would have to
The Taipei City Government yesterday confirmed that it has negotiated a royalties of NT$12.2 billion (US$380 million) with artificial intelligence (AI) chip giant Nvidia Corp, with the earliest possible signing date set for Wednesday next week. The city has been preparing for Nvidia to build its Taiwan headquarters in Beitou-Shilin Technology Park since last year, and the project has now entered its final stage before the contract is signed. Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said the city government has completed the royalty price negotiations and would now push through the remaining procedures to sign the contract before
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday said the name of the Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania was agreed by both sides, after Lithuania’s prime minister described a 2021 decision to let Taiwan set up a de facto embassy in Vilnius as a “mistake.” Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene, who entered office in September last year, told the Baltic News Service on Tuesday that Lithuania had begun taking “small first steps” aimed at restoring ties with Beijing. The ministry in a statement said that Taiwan and Lithuania are important partners that share the values of freedom and democracy. Since the establishment of the
Taipei Zoo welcomes the Lunar New Year this year through its efforts to protect an endangered species of horse native to central Asia that was once fully extinct outside of captivity. The festival ushering in the Year of the Horse would draw attention to the zoo’s four specimens of Przewalski’s horse, named for a Russian geographer who first encountered them in the late 19th century across the steppes of western Mongolia. “Visitors will look at the horses and think that since this is the Year of the Horse: ‘I want to get to know horses,’” said zookeeper Chen Yun-chieh, who has been
RSS