Using pandas to further the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “united front” rhetoric would have limited effect, a government source said yesterday, after a top Chinese official last week urged 39 Taiwanese students visiting Sichuan Province to oppose Taiwanese independence.
Undergraduate and master’s students aged 35 or under who would be applying for their first-ever “Taiwan compatriot permit” were eligible for the eight-day camp, which ran from Monday last week to Monday, according to the Web site of the Taiwan Development Institute, which handled recruitment for the trip.
Camp participants would be hosted by the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), which arranged the itinerary, which included a visit to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, Chengdu Radio & Television Co’s headquarters and scenic sites, the Web site said.
Photo courtesy of the Taiwan Development Institute
The ARATS said each participant was expected to pay NT$22,000 for airfares, other travel expenses, accommodation and other costs.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Deputy Director Wu Xi (吳璽) said at the camp’s opening ceremony last week that participants from either side of the Taiwan Strait should interact, work together to promote what is good for the Chinese people, advocate the spread of Chinese culture and steadfastly oppose Taiwanese independence.
In Taipei, a government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, warned about such events.
Regardless of the nature of an event organized by the CCP — even if it is ostensibly about pandas — the core theme is always the same: to promote unification and oppose Taiwanese independence, the official said.
ARATS and China’s Taiwan Affairs Office branches in Chinese provinces have never given up attempting to influence young Taiwanese with their “united front” rhetoric, but the actual effects are limited, the source said.
None of the Taiwanese professors who have worked in China over the past few years have achieved academic success, the official said, adding that the many Taiwanese youth entrepreneurial start-up pilot zones in China have become little more than ghost towns due to the declining economic performance across the Strait.
Any opportunity provided for Taiwanese is snatched from locals, which only breeds discontent among Chinese, the official said, adding that there is little opportunity to find a job or start a business in China.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS