The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday called on Chinese authorities not to use sports exchanges for “united front” propaganda, after Taiwanese table tennis player Lin Yun-ju (林昀儒) appeared at an event in China recently wearing a red scarf linked to the Chinese Young Pioneers.
MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said that the council believes that the Chinese side had “arranged” for Lin to participate in the pregame event.
“We believe this was an attempt by the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] to use the incident for ‘united front’ propaganda,” he told a regular news briefing in Taipei.
Photo from Sina Weibo
Lin was “unknowingly” made to wear a red scarf typically worn by Chinese elementary students and was “manipulated” into singing a united front-themed song with others during a pre-game event in the Chinese province of Shandong, the council said in a statement on Wednesday.
The participation of Lin — Taiwan’s top-ranked male paddler — was “deliberately publicized” by Chinese authorities, the MAC said.
Cross-strait professional exchanges should not involve political or “united front” arrangements, it said.
“However, the CCP often uses various exchange occasions to carry out ‘united front’ propaganda, undermining the original intent of such exchanges — an approach that does nothing to improve cross-strait interaction,” the council added.
The MAC’s response came after photos and videos of Lin wearing a red scarf and interacting with elementary-school students in China circulated online and drew public attention.
The red scarf is a symbol of membership in the Chinese Young Pioneers, a national mass organization for children in China operated under the CCP-led Communist Youth League of China.
In a video posted on Sina Weibo on Wednesday, Lin was seen holding hands with students, who were all wearing red scarves and singing the song I Love You, China (我愛你,中國).
Lin’s teammates at the Shandong Weiqiao Table Tennis Club, including Olympic gold medalist Wang Chuqin (王楚欽), were also seen wearing red scarves at the event.
The Shandong club won the men’s team title in last year’s Chinese Table Tennis Super League, with Lin as part of the championship squad.
Article 33-1 of 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) prohibits Taiwanese from engaging in “any form of cooperative activity with the agencies, institutions or organizations of the Mainland Area which are political parties, the military, the administration or of any political nature.”
While it remains unclear whether Lin is to be investigated or penalized under Article 33-1 for his participation in the event, a report by Chinese-language news outlet ETtoday on Wednesday cited an unnamed official as saying that Lin had been pushed into the situation without prior knowledge.
The report cited the official as saying that Lin had sensed something was inappropriate at the scene and voiced his concerns.
Lin’s agent on Wednesday told the Chinese-language newspaper Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) that Lin went to Shandong solely to compete and had no other purpose, adding that he would stay focused on the competition.
“It was simply a decision to accept the competition invitation,” the agent added.
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