The Straits Exchange Foundation a few days ago said that in early October, three members of the I-Kuan Tao religious group were arrested while on a pilgrimage to the city of Zhongshan in China’s Guangdong Province.
It has been two months since the three went missing. There is still no word from any of them, and their precise whereabouts are unknown to Taiwanese authorities.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has said that the three Taiwanese are being detained by the Guangdong Public Security Bureau and have been charged on suspicion of “organizing and practicing as members of a cult that undermines law enforcement.”
There are countless examples of China attempting to infiltrate Taiwan, and of entrapping Taiwanese in China, all under the guise of cross-strait exchanges.
Intimidated by China’s notorious record, some victims’ families are cowed into not bringing attention to their loved ones’ plight. They would rather deal with Beijing’s legal labyrinth privately, to the point that they would refuse their own government “prolonging the work of freeing their loved ones by getting involved.”
However, remaining silent only emboldens Beijing to draw out a performative handling of those it considers “guilty.”
Victims and their families must be fully aware of what is happening. They need to muster up the courage to reveal their loved ones’ detention. Making these cases public helps the whole world to notice China’s barbaric and uncivilized infringement on human rights and freedoms.
At a minimum, it could keep the Chinese authorities on their toes and ensure that victims are not “disappeared” without a trace.
The Lee Ming-che (李明哲) abduction case is an example. Once Taiwanese became aware that he was being held captive, help was provided to his family and he was given at least a degree of “procedural justice.”
Once they have completed their sentences and are released from prison in China, with some personal integrity and dignity still intact, these victims of Chinese political abduction become a damning hallmark of one-party authoritarianism.
Beijing does not ensnare just Taiwanese, but citizens of other countries as well. It uses foreigners as “human bartering chips.” In 2018, Huawei deputy chairwoman and chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou (孟晚舟) was placed under house arrest in her Vancouver mansion for allegedly using a shell company in Hong Kong to purchase and resell US technology to Iran.
China retaliated by arresting two Canadian citizens, North Korean affairs consultant Michael Spavor and former Canadian foreign service officer Michael Kovrig, known colloquially as the “two Michaels.” The two were arrested and charged with espionage and harming China’s national security and sentenced to prison. It was only in September 2021 when Meng was released and allowed to return to China that the two Michaels were released from prison and deported.
This time, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) has alerted Taiwanese that China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was carrying out a “silent Joint Sword drill.”
Beijing mouthpieces either did not acknowledge or denied any of the news of Chinese military maneuvers. The PLA emphasized that no matter whether it was carrying out training drills, to assist in Beijing’s wish to “defeat separatists and implement unification,” it would be “fully present and would not be lenient.”
However, they were not the only group to speak on behalf of China. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators and political figures stated that “no declaration” essentially means there was no drill, and as a result the presidential office should apologize to the PLA.
Such comments are simply astounding. China has long tested the waters by carrying out “gray zone” war tactics against Taiwan, the US and other democracies. In particular, it has been doing so in the lame duck period leading up to US president-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20. Beijing’s collaborators and supporters are attempting to sow doubts about Taiwan in incremental, imperceptible steps, like a frog in water that is slowly being boiled to death.
The MND is not wrong in its assessment. It issues statements on PLA aircraft, naval and official vessel movements in the Taiwan Strait and waters around Taiwan. Doing so allows the international community to see that China is trying to normalize its posture.
The KMT cannot be taken at its word when it offers sophistries, such as that the lack of a declaration means the drills do not exist, while Beijing gets ever closer to its ultimate goal of securing the entire Indo-Pacific region in its stated “anaconda strategy.”
During China’s “silent Joint-Sword drills,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was busy implementing cross-strait “student exchanges” through his foundation, saying that it is a foregone conclusion that China could blockade Taiwan and deny the US and other Taiwan-friendly forces’ entry into Taiwan’s territory. Chinese “student” and athletic representatives visiting Taiwan did not waste their opportunity after Team Taiwan won the World Baseball Softball Confederation’s (WBSC) Premier12 championship to deliberately swap the name “Chinese Taipei” — the official name Taiwan has to compete under in international sports events — for “China, Taipei” or “China, Taiwan.”
Despite this, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation chief executive Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) did nothing but kowtow to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) by brushing off the comments as merely the habitual way that Chinese refer to Taiwanese teams. The student only meant well, Hsiao added.
Surely, Taiwanese should be tolerant and show magnanimity and diffidence. Why would Taiwanese want to bully an innocent student? However, the MAC has already confirmed that these students hold CCP membership or have close ties to the party.
“After all, China and Taiwan both belong to ‘one China,’” Hsiao said.
Following the same logic, if someone from China says that Oct. 1, 1949, was the day the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was established and overthrew the Republic of China (ROC), thereby bringing an end to the ROC, one could imagine Hsiao explaining this away as being “just the way Chinese people say it.”
These ostensible “cross-strait exchanges” are unequal and imbalanced. China’s “united front” keeps encroaching on Taiwan, leading to Taiwanese investment in China and some Taiwanese’s identification as PRC citizens.
When Chinese travel to Taiwan on “exchanges,” they can remain completely oblivious to the ROC’s laws and enjoy freedoms and human rights, free to say anything they wish without the repercussions of being whisked away by secret police.
However, when Taiwanese travel to China, they need to follow Chinese customs and mind the PRC’s laws, receiving the same treatment that China’s 1.4 billion citizens “enjoy” — the forfeiture of their basic freedoms and human rights. That is why Chinese in China are extremely wary of what they say and do, afraid to accidentally run up against the law, as China is ruled by a party-state and its laws are arbitrary. When Taiwanese are in China, they must assume they have no liberties or human rights. When Chinese are in Taiwan, they can criticize democracy as much as they please, or belittle Taiwan and nothing bad would befall them.
With the freedom and human rights that Taiwan confers on visitors, Chinese visitors never seem to take the chance to blast their country’s one-party authoritarianism, the CCP’s disastrous national “zero-COVID-19” quarantine policy, the Tiananmen Square Massacre or other taboo topics.
The real purpose of the imbalance in “cross-strait exchanges” is to serve as a lawful channel for China to implement its “united front” to infiltrate country, divide society, overturn government and carry out cognitive warfare.
It is ironic that it is the KMT, the successor of such staunchly anti-CCP figures as former presidents Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and his son Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), that has been transformed into such a vocal promoter of these “cross-strait exchanges.”
While the PLA is itching to start a fight and Taiwan sits calmly next to this bellicose neighbor, Ma seems to have no regrets about investing all his effort toward running errands for Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), while Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) could not get this year’s Taipei-Shanghai Twin Cities Forum started soon enough.
Ma and Chiang Wan-an suffer from self-inflicted delusions: “Communicating is better than not communicating, mutual understanding is more valuable than misunderstanding.” The PLA is carrying out large-scale training maneuvers on Taiwan’s borders, Chinese “students” and athletes are still coming to Taiwan on exchange trips, and the Twin-City Forum is still being held.
What kind of people do Ma and Chiang Wan-an actually see themselves as? What kind of people do they think the PLA are, if not enemies or adversaries? Despite their similar attitudes, there is actually one area where the two differ.
The former sees himself as a translator and purveyor of Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-kuo’s ideology.
The latter apparently has blood ties with them, being the great-grandson of Chiang Kai-shek and the grandson of Chiang Ching-kuo.
Suppose that the Taipei mayor belittles himself to the lowly stature of Ma, filling his speeches with Beijing-isms and pro-CCP speech, he would be putting his lot in with the CCP and what they would like for Taiwan.
Surely his forebears would be spinning in their graves and want to disown him.
Perhaps the Taipei mayor ought to reflect on what his grandfather and great-grandfather actually stood for.
Translated by Tim Smith
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