Chiu Chui-cheng, the head of the Mainland Affairs Council. CNA photo Dec. 28, 2024
FOCUS TAIWAN | Published December 28, 2024
In the seven months since President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) took office, China has not shown any signs of easing its pressure campaign against Taiwan that had already been ramped up during the tenure of Lai’s predecessor Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).
Much of that pressure has involved regular military drills in the Taiwan Strait, but it has also entailed “united front” activities intended to help Beijing influence public opinion in Taiwan.
Taiwan’s top government agency for cross-strait affairs is the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) and in an exclusive interview with CNA on Friday, MAC head Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) outlined some of the approaches his agency has adopted to address the challenges of dealing with Beijing.
A countermeasure
On June 21, around one month after the Lai administration took office, Chinese authorities, including the Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) of the State Council, announced a new set of legal guidelines targeting advocates of Taiwan independence, with the most severe punishment being the death penalty.
The guidelines’ scope was “extremely broad and overly expansive,” Chiu said, noting that, under the provisions, anyone who does not support the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) unification policies “could almost certainly face legal consequences.”
In response, the MAC participated in raising the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macao to the second-highest “orange” level, he said, and “lodged a protest” with Chinese authorities over the serious personal safety risks the rules posed to Taiwanese in China.
The protest included rejecting applications from high-ranking TAO officials in major Chinese cities to visit Taiwan.
Those denied entry included Jin Mei (金梅), director of the Shanghai Municipal TAO, who missed the 15th Twin-City Forum in Taipei in mid-December.
Asked if the same approach would continue in the future, Chiu said it was “the principle.”
Entry would only be granted if the officials would agree to meet with the MAC in a way where “we could lodge a protest regarding this matter (the issuance of the guidelines),” he added.
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SOURCE: www.focustaiwan.tw
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