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.
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient to constitute a “cooperative activity” under Article 33-1 of the act, which prohibits collaboration with organizations of “any political nature,” he added.
Liang’s comments followed a MAC statement on Monday saying that the Ministry of Education would initiate an investigation into whether the essay competition, titled: “Reading a Good Book Together,” contravened the act.
The competition, jointly organized by the Taipei-based Republic of China Zhang Fa Society and the Straits Publishing and Distributing Group — an entity under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee — is described on the Zhang Fa Society’s Web site as a cross-strait reading and writing exchange program.
Aimed at Taiwanese teachers and students, the event’s goal is to “promote cultural exchange and emotional connection between teachers and young students across the Taiwan Strait,” the event guidelines on the Zhang Fa Society’s Web site says.
Participants are provided a list of recommended books and encouraged to submit a reflection essay on one of the titles for a chance to win one of about 100 awards, drawn from a total prize pool of NT$200,000, with the top prize valued at NT$6,000, the Web site says.
Those who submit essays are also eligible to participate in a study tour in China’s Fujian Province, the Zhang Fa Society said, adding that the submission deadline has been extended from Wednesday to May 15.
Liang said the achievements of the competition’s inaugural edition held last year were listed on the official Web site of the 16th Straits Forum — a platform the MAC has said is part of Beijing’s “united front” strategy targeting Taiwan.
Asked to clarify the scope of “cooperative activity” under Article 33-1 of the act, Liang said that China’s “united front” tactics are constantly evolving, and that providing a fixed list of prohibited activities could allow the Chinese authorities to develop new strategies to circumvent it.
Not all cross-strait student exchanges are in breach of the law, Liang said, citing as an example programs in which Taiwanese students travel to China on all-expenses-paid visits, as part of reciprocal agreements between schools on both sides to host each other’s students.
“That would be considered a reciprocal arrangement between the two sides,” he said.
However, some activities are clearly one-sided, with the Chinese side covering all expenses and often featuring speeches by officials from the CCP’s United Front Work Department or senior government representatives promoting unification to Taiwanese students, he added.
In such instances, the MAC believes these activities warrant further investigation, he added.
In response to the MAC’s statement on Monday suggesting a potential contravention of the act, the Zhang Fa Society issued a statement the same day, saying the competition is a goodwill-driven cultural exchange and a form of normal cross-strait interaction.
“We urge against overinterpretation or unnecessary assumptions,” the society said.
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