The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Beijing for urging local media outlets to "expose" Taiwan independence activities, saying that media representatives could face prosecution if they help China target Taiwanese.
Chinese authorities had "summoned certain Taiwanese media outlets to Beijing for instructions and urged them to 'jointly expose Taiwan independence separatist activities,'" the MAC said in a statement.
Such a move "essentially amounts to asking Taiwanese media to cooperate with the Chinese Communist Party's transnational repression against Taiwan and restrict the freedoms of the Taiwanese people through intimidation," the MAC said.
Photo: Reuters
In Taiwan, peaceful advocacy of independence is protected as free speech.
The MAC described the move as Beijing's tactic of "using Taiwan to control Taiwan."
The agency's statement came after Wu Xi (吳璽), deputy director of China's Taiwan Affairs Office, made remarks on the role of cross-strait media at the seventh edition of the cross-strait media summit in Beijing earlier yesterday.
Speaking at the event, Wu said that "Taiwan independence separatist forces" have been spreading false information and malicious remarks to incite anti-China sentiment and create cross-strait confrontation, seriously undermining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
Wu urged media professionals from both sides to "use truthful reporting and rational commentary to expose the harmfulness and danger of Taiwanese independence activities and external interference."
Taiwanese media outlets that sent representatives to the event could breach laws such as the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法) and National Security Act (國家安全法) if they cooperate with Beijing as "local collaborators" in its campaign to "punish Taiwan independence,” the MAC said.
Examples of such conduct include following Beijing's instructions to "exploit press freedom" by accusing specific individuals of being Taiwanese independence advocates, providing Taiwanese citizens' personal information or disseminating bounty notices, MAC said.
Contraventions could carry a maximum prison sentence of more than seven years, the agency added.
More than 100 media executives and journalism academics attended this year's summit, including Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋), vice chairman of the Want Want Group, which owns media outlets such as CTi Television Inc and the China Times, China's state-run Xinhua news agency said.
An exclusive report by the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) yesterday cited national security sources as saying that other Taiwanese attendees included representatives from United Daily News, TVBS and The Observer magazine.
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