The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday slammed former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) upcoming attendance at a cross-strait forum organized by China’s Fujian Provincial Government, accusing him of working in concert with Beijing’s “united front” campaign.
Taiwan condemns Ma’s inappropriate decision to take part in a Chinese event created as an anti-Taiwan “united front” work platform, the council said.
Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) earlier yesterday told a routine news conference that Ma is expected to visit the province from Saturday through June 27 to attend the forum and cultural exchanges, including a rite celebrating Fuxi (伏羲), the mythical progenitor of humankind.
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
China welcomes all Taiwanese compatriots to visit China to achieve the mission of a great Chinese national revival, she said.
The MAC said that laws banning serving or recently retired officials from making unauthorized visits to China, which started during Ma’s presidential tenure, were created to guard against Beijing’s political infiltration.
The forum is part of Beijing’s expanding campaign of pressure against Taiwan, with the aim of sowing social division and setting conditions for Taiwan’s annexation, it said.
If Ma insists on attending the forum, he is reminded to comport himself in a manner that upholds Taiwan’s dignity and equality, and refrain from allowing himself to become fodder for Chinese propaganda, it said.
The former president must abide by the stipulations 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), the council added.
An official familiar with cross-strait matters said that Ma does not need to obtain authorization to travel to China because he had long stepped down from public office.
Most Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and local government heads are reluctant to attend the forum, as the party is facing a massive recall campaign, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
That has sparked alarm in Beijing, prompting Chinese officials to turn to Ma in hopes that his attendance would save them from the embarrassment of not having Taiwanese officials at the forum, the source said.
Since no former president of Taiwan has ever deigned to take part in a provincial-level forum, Ma’s attendance could be a propaganda coup for China, the official added.
Commenting on condition of anonymity, a source in the KMT said that Beijing has resorted to luring Ma to attend the forum with promises of a third personal meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
Another KMT source said that KMT Mainland Affairs Department head Lin Chu-chia (林祖嘉) could be tasked with going to the event in Fujian to maintain KMT-Chinese Communist Party ties.
When asked, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation chief executive officer Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said he had no information to share with the media at the time.
Additional reporting by Su Yung-yao
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