Wed, Aug 26, 2026 page3

• Chinese border control rules likely to affect Taiwanese

  • By Chen Yu-fu and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer
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  Beijing’s new cybersecurity and border control rules launching in October pose a significant risk to Taiwanese, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Deputy Minister Shen Yu-chung (沈有忠) said yesterday.

  He made the comment in a conference on Chinese cyberspace surveillance hosted by the Association for Asian Political Economy and Peace at National Taiwan University in Taipei.

  The Chinese government followed the implementation of its Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law with new rules governing Internet services, border control and cybersecurity.

  

  Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Shen Yu-chung, second right, speaks during a seminar hosted by the Association for Asian Political Economy and Peace in Taipei yesterday.

  Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times

  The most likely explanation for Beijing’s series of regulatory changes is a desire to strengthen the Chinese Communist Party’s grip on civil society ahead of next year’s 21st National Congress, Shen said.

  They give regulators a broad remit in interpreting and enforcing the law, increasing the arbitrariness of China’s legal system, Shen said.

  The cybersecurity regulations, which explicitly define broad applicability and give low-ranking public security officers a mandate to enforce their rules, heightened the legal threat to Taiwanese in China, he said.

  Low-ranking Chinese officials are incentivized to apply the harshest interpretation of laws and regulations to avoid deviation from the party line, Shen said.

  These laws and regulations include legal mechanisms that authorize the Chinese government to claim extraterritorial authority on foreign soil, raising fears of transnational repression worldwide, he said.

  Taiwan’s response to these laws and regulations is to denounce Beijing’s long-arm enforcement and transnational repression as illegal and illegitimate, Shen said.

  The government intends to severely punish any collaborators who aid China’s attempt to export its political repression in Taiwan, and countermeasures would be continuously reviewed and improved, he said.

  The government is considering a law to make facilitating transnational repression a criminal offense, Shen said.

  A poll by the council showed that 76.4 percent of Taiwanese would approve such legislation, he added.

  The MAC is working with other ministries and agencies to organize defenses against Chinese efforts to target Taiwanese and Taiwan’s foreign residents, he said.

  The government is providing people at risk of Chinese retaliation with defensive measures and other forms of assistance, Shen said.

  Taiwan is deepening its cooperation with an international coalition of democracies to share intelligence, conduct joint security countermeasures, monitor legal or regulatory changes in Beijing and educate the public on transnational repression, he said.

  The government’s longtime stance on cross-strait relations is that exchanges must take place under conditions of peace, mutual respect and maintenance of the “status quo,” he said.

  There is no chance of healthy dialogue across the Taiwan Strait without derisking and depoliticizing such exchanges, Shen said.

  The public is urged to carefully assess their level of risk before visiting China and use the MAC registry for people traveling in China, Hong Kong and Macau if they are detained incommunicado by Chinese authorities, he said.
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