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.
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