Beijing is expected to intensify long-arm jurisdiction and transnational persecution against dissidents in China and abroad after the passage of the Act on the Promotion of Ethnic Unity and Progress at the Chinese National People’s Congress, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday.
The act is essentially a law representing Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) vision about governing different ethnic groups in China, MAC Deputy Minister Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a news conference.
“The purpose of the act is to establish what the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] perceives as ‘correct’ views on the nation, history, ethnicity, culture, education and religion,” Liang said. “All ethnic groups in China must have the same views on the nation and Chinese history, meaning that there is only one interpretation of Chinese culture and history.”
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
Anyone interpreting Chinese history differently or in ways disapproved of by the CCP face legal consequences, as it could be considered as undermining national unity and deliberately inciting separatism, he said.
Gusa Press (八旗文化) editor-in-chief Li Yanhe (李延賀), commonly known by his pen name Fucha (富察), was arrested and detained by Chinese national security authorities when he was visiting relatives in China in March 2023.
The National People’s Congress on Wednesday last week delivered a report by the Chinese Supreme People’s Court and the Chinese Supreme People’s Procuratorate, saying that Li was convicted of inciting secession and undermining national unity, as required by law.
Liang said that the report also listed a series of books he wrote by which he was convicted.
One of them, titled Grassland Without Tombstones (沒有墓碑的草原), was about the massacre of Mongols during the Chinese Cultural Revolution.
Li verified the details of history and reflected on the significance of the incident, “which is unacceptable to the CCP,” Liang said, adding that simply publishing these books can be considered contravening the law.
“Our concern is that the terms in the law are vaguely defined and could implicate an extensive range of situations. The CCP decides how the law should be interpreted and whether one contravenes the law, which applies not only to Chinese nationals, but also to historians, writers and religious leaders in other countries,” Liang said.
MAC Deputy Minister Shen Yu-chung (沈有忠) told a forum in Taipei that, on the surface, the law was created to maintain internal stability in China.
However, it was actually passed as a legal base to attack and punish supporters of independence in Taiwan, he said.
“China considers Taiwan to be under its jurisdiction and Taiwanese who do not facilitate national unity or unification are punishable by the act,” Lee said.
“In that case, cracking down on separatists and facilitating cross-strait unification are not separate matters,” he said.
During discussion of the act, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference also passed a resolution on the “Sinicization of religion,” which is listed in the same chapter on pushing for cross-strait reunification and “one country, two systems,” Lee said.
Many consider that the resolution was introduced to enhance China’s “united front” work and enable it to exercise long-arm jurisdiction in Taiwan, Lee added.
Zhao Leji (趙樂際), chairman of the National People’s Congress of China, said that it aims to reinforce shared memories of history between Chinese and Taiwanese this year by celebrating the retrocession of Taiwan to China and that 160th anniversary of the birth of Sun Yat-sen (孫中山), Lee said, adding that these are measures to facilitate “memory integration.”
The CCP also identified Pingtan in Fujian Province and Kunshan in Jiangsu Province to be part of the memory integration initiative, Lee said.
Additional reporting by Chen Yu-fu
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