The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday said it would not attend the Straits Forum on Saturday next week in Xiamen, China, calling the event part of Beijing’s “united front” activities.
The party’s move is in line with the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) designation of the event as a “platform for ‘united front’ tactics” last year, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) said at a news conference.
“We call on all party members ... not to be deceived into taking part in China-directed united front activity,” Wu said, citing the council’s decision to ban central government personnel from attending the summit.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
President William Lai (賴清德) on multiple occasions invited the Chinese government to engage in healthy and orderly exchanges where both sides would conduct dialogue calmly and amiably, he said.
“Yet, the Ministry of National Defense just today reported that China has sent more than 10 ships and aircraft each to harry the seas surrounding Taiwan,” Wu said. “We hope China would stop the military provocations to enable a return to healthy and stable cross-strait relations.”
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) earlier yesterday formally announced the 18th edition of the Straits Forum.
TAO spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) told a news conference in Beijing that the summit aims to expand and deepen non-official, grassroots and broad-based ties between Taiwan and China.
The Straits Forum is to revolve around the themes of ordinary people, youth, culture and the economy, Zhu said, calling on Taiwanese from all political parties, unions, youth, women, agriculture and fisheries sectors, culture and tourism, public health, and enterprises to attend the event.
In related news, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文), praised Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) goodwill and slammed Taiwanese independence during a banquet with Taiwanese nationals living in San Francisco on Tuesday.
DPP Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said Cheng’s parroting of the Chinese government’s “talking points” was offensive to Taiwan’s patriotic overseas community.
The Chinese communists appear to have fully captured the KMT since Cheng’s election as party chairwoman, who has been effusive with praise for China and silent on Beijing’s threats of using military force against Taiwan, he said.
“Under Cheng’s leadership, the KMT has become a proxy of China’s ‘united front’ operations,” Wang said. “Will Taiwanese society continue to tolerate a Beijing-subordinated political party that enjoys taxpayer money as it plots to destroy Taiwan’s sovereignty?”
The Republic of China loyalists in the KMT must speak up for the sake of the party and the nation, he said.
“As it stands, if you cross out the name of the speaker, you can no longer tell the difference between a comment made by KMT officials and China’s TAO,” Wang said. “This is a sad sight to behold.”
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