Taiwanese news media insist on press freedom and professionalism, and would never become a tool of China’s “united front” campaign, Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) said yesterday, responding to media queries about the lack of Taiwanese media executives at the Cross-Strait Media People Summit in Beijing.
Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧) was reportedly furious that no Taiwanese media representatives attended a scheduled meeting with him on Thursday last week.
“Beijing should take Taiwan’s determination to pursue freedom and democracy seriously. We also hope that it will not use vicious means to interfere with Taiwan’s development into a free and stable country,” Chen said.
Photo: Huang Tzu-yang, Taipei Times
“Cross-strait relations should proceed through democratic dialogue on the basis of peace and equality, which would help facilitate healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges,” he said. “Most importantly, we are seeing that Taiwanese news media insist on press freedom and professionalism, and would never become a tool to be used for the CCP’s [Chinese Communist Party] ‘united front’ campaign to influence or viciously suppress Taiwan.”
Thirty Taiwanese news media executives were invited to attend the four-day summit, which ended on Saturday, a plan by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office showed.
Wang attended the summit and had three goals: The summit should create an atmosphere conducive to discussing the Taiwanese version of China’s “one country, two systems” formula and the beginning of “democratic negotiations;” it should stick closely to discussing cross-strait relations as being “a choice between war and peace,” making it a mainstream agenda among Taiwanese; and it should offer an extremely positive outlook of the Chinese economy to encourage more Taiwanese businesspeople to invest in China.
A source familiar with the matter told the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) that Taiwanese media executives were wary of the meeting with Wang, due to Taiwan’s presidential election next year.
During their meeting with then-CPPCC chairman Wang Yang (汪洋) at the summit in 2019, Wang lectured them about peaceful unification and China’s “one country, two systems” formula, sparking criticism from the Taiwanese public.
Many executives had little interest in attending the summit for fear they would be labeled as tools for China’s “united front” campaign, the source said.
Although the Taiwan Affairs Office merged the Cross-Strait Media People Summit and Chinese Culture Summit, it failed again to draw mainstream media executives from Taiwan, the source said.
Eventually, it held a small marketing event for small and medium-sized media outlets, local radio stations and online media outlets from Taiwan, the source said.
Wang Huning has reportedly been ordered to maximize efforts to encourage Taiwanese of all levels to attend the Straits Forum on June 18 — from political parties, groups and local officials to temple management.
The purpose of such an aggressive campaign is to influence Taiwan’s presidential election next year, the source said.
“The CCP intends to weaken Taiwan’s sovereignty, intervene in the presidential election and steal Taiwan’s funds and technology,” Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said. “On the positive side, few media outlets are willing to put on a show for China. However, the government should investigate the legal responsibilities of media and political parties who join China’s ‘united front’ work to intervene in the elections in Taiwan.”
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
RSS