Cross-strait experts yesterday urged the government to investigate whether the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is attempting to infiltrate high schools, following reports that communist organizations have emerged in 39 junior high and high schools nationwide.
The organizations belong to the Intercollegiate Communists Federation, which was founded by members of Taipei Municipal Chien Kuo High School, an all-boys elite high school.
The federation’s Instagram says that it aims to control governance at Chien Kuo High School, facilitate reform at the school and spread “correct communism,” but is not related to the CCP.
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
The federation is governed by a chairperson, a policy committee and an independent committee, with each school in the federation having its own chairperson and committee.
The federation holds regular meetings once during the summer break and once during the winter break, and students can fill out an online form to become members.
Although the case might be considered a matter of freedom of speech following amendments to Article 100 of the Criminal Code, the government would study appropriate ways to address it, a cross-strait affairs official said on condition of anonymity.
Max Lin (林子立), director of Tung Hai University’s Center for Mainland China and Regional Development Research, told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) that the CCP is carrying out “united front” and infiltration tactics using freedom of speech in Taiwan, adding that it has employed a similar strategy globally through the establishment of Confucius Institutes.
“The CCP knows very well how to manipulate high-school students, but it would be very difficult for the government to ban these organizations unless they explicitly express seditious intent,” Lin said.
“However, the public needs to beware of this situation and question why these organizations exist in the first place, including their funding, participants and coordinators,” Lin said, adding that people also need to scrutinize if members of these organizations truly understand communism.
Other high-school students should be encouraged to have debates with their peers who support communism on the differences between democracy and communism, as well as the track record of the CCP, he said.
Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a news conference in Taipei that the last time the federation posted messages was in 2023, and it is uncertain if it is still operating.
Article 2 of the Civil Association Act (人民團體法) previously stipulated that associations are banned from having communism as a core belief, which was declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court in 2008, Liang said.
As such, people can now register their organizations using “communist party” or “communism,” Liang said, adding that there are currently five organizations that have the terms in their titles.
“It is normal for young people to fantasize about communism, which is an important political theory. Its emphasis on humanitarianism and building a utopia could be quite appealing,” he said.
“I would encourage them to study a bit more about the histories of the CCP and the international communist movement, particularly how communist leaders like Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong (毛澤東) turned their communist parties into autocratic and authoritarian regimes. They would realize that an ideal world portrayed in communism and communists’ rule in the real world are two completely different matters,” he said.
“We will leave it to education officials to understand these organizations,” he added.
Meanwhile, Liang defended the necessity of scrutinizing applications filed by Taiwanese to reinstate their citizenships after they were found to carry Chinese IDs or passports or have household registrations in China, following a proposed amendment to Ministry of the Interior regulations.
“Citizenship is very precious, and one cannot simply toss it aside one day and take it back another day. The regulations would make clear the criteria for reinstatement, including humanitarian reasons and major contributions to Taiwan and national security,” he said.
Liang also said that the regular checks that are to be conducted from next year on whether military personnel, civil servants and public-school teachers hold Chinese citizenship or household registration are designed to ensure that they fulfill the requirements stipulated by 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).
It is different from the loyalty checks for government workers who handle confidential information, he said.
Internet celebrity Holger Chen (陳之漢) recently complained he was banned from hosting a show on Douyin (抖音).
In response, Liang said that Chen would be easily categorized as a special case based on his past statements.
“To broadcast on Douyin, he would need to follow the regulations from the platform as well as the from the Cyberspace Administration of China and the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China, which bans explicit display of large tattoos and vulgar language,” he said, adding that Chen would work extra hard to persuade the Chinese officials.
The council said its latest survey shows nearly 75 percent oppose civil servants and military personnel holding Chinese identity documents, while more than 65 percent agree that public servants should obtain prior approval before traveling to China, Hong Kong or Macau.
Nearly 66.5 percent support strengthening the screening and management of Chinese applying to come to Taiwan for exchanges.
Meanwhile, nearly 85 percent oppose the CCP’s proposal of “one country, two systems,” and more than 70 percent disagree with the claim that “both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one China, and Taiwan is a part of China.”
About 85 percent support the government’s position of “broadly maintaining the ‘status quo,’” with 83.1 percent affirming that Taiwan’s future should be decided by the 23 million people of Taiwan, the survey shows.
Nearly 75 percent support the statement that “the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other,” reflecting a long-term stable trend in public opinion.
More than 65 percent of respondents believe that the CCP’s infiltration into Taiwan has become increasingly severe in recent years, the council said.
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