Beijing’s special task force handling Taiwan affairs has set up 29 corporations and business entities to facilitate cross-strait unification efforts, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said.
The report focuses on the organizational structure and personnel handling Taiwan affairs in China.
The task force, known as the Central Leading Group on Taiwan Affairs, was created to coordinate eight government departments handling Taiwan affairs in China, the report said.
Photo: REUTERS
It operates through two offices, including China’s Central Taiwan Affairs Office (CTAO) and Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO).
In 1956, members of the task force included senior Chinese officials in charge of “united front work,” investigation, political messaging, public safety, diplomacy, overseas Chinese affairs and military affairs. The focus of the task force then was to induce high-ranking military and political officials in Taiwan to defect and achieve cross-strait unification through a partnership between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the report said.
Members of the task force underwent a large-scale adjustment after the 20th National Congress of the CCP in October 2022, when Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) secured an unprecedented third term through a constitutional amendment.
Aside from Xi being the chief of the task force, Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧) served as the deputy chief, the report said.
Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅), TAO Director Song Tao (宋濤) and other high-ranking Chinese political and military officials serve as members, it said.
Members representing the Chinese military could include Chinese Lieutenant General Jing Jianfeng (景建峰), given his previous remarks on Taiwan during the Shangri-La Dialogue in 2023, the report said.
The report also said that the TAO relied heavily on research by the Research Center on Cross-Strait Relations, which was created by the office in September 2000.
The center has since recruited experts from within the CCP, the Chinese military, social studies institutions and universities, with specialties ranging from politics, economics, law, military, military, history, social studies, journalism and international relations, the report said.
Experts at the center mainly engage in technical and strategic research on unification-related issues, it said.
The research center would also regularly hold forums on cross-strait relations and “one country, two systems,” to which Taiwanese experts would be invited as well, the report said.
The report disclosed a list of 29 Chinese corporations and business entities that the CTAO owns, which was published by the TAO in October 2023. They include international trade firms, real-estate development firms, investment consulting firms, manufacturing companies, travel agencies, publication houses, an automobile maintenance center, an advertisement and exposition service operator, record company, and a film production firm.
The study also examined spokespersons in TAO. Former TAO spokesman Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光), who now serves as vice president of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, was a participant in the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, the report said.
TAO spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華), a native of Fujian Province, was a Xinhua news agency correspondent in Taiwan and can speak Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) fluently, it said.
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