A Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator yesterday slammed former premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) for acquiescing to Beijing’s narrative that the government is countering history by promoting desinicization programs to sever Taiwan’s links to Chinese culture, in a recent meeting between Liu and Chinese officials.
China has launched its latest cultural propaganda under its United Front Work Department and it is a disgrace that Liu, a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Central Committee member, panders to Beijing by becoming a willing tool for China’s new cognitive warfare targeting Taiwan’s arts and culture communities, DPP Legislator Lai Jui-lung (賴瑞隆) said.
“The Chinese communist regime has long wanted to erase the ‘Republic of China’ [ROC] from history and sought to annex Taiwan as a province. It would not even give the ROC room to exist in the international arena. And yet we see Liu leading a delegation of Taiwanese arts and culture practitioners kowtowing to Beijing and willing to be used as tools for Chinese propaganda targeting Taiwan,” Lai said.
Photo: Screengrab from China’s state-run China Central Television broadcast
Liu also served as a vice premier and minister of transportation and communication under KMT administrations in the 1990s to 2000s.
Liu is leading a Taiwanese delegation to the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit in Beijing this week. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Song Tao (宋濤) met with Liu and select delegation members on Tuesday.
“Both sides of the Strait belongs to one China, both are Chinese people and it is Chinese culture that is the spiritual root that binds us together,” media reports quoted Song as telling the group. “We support these Taiwanese arts and culture figures in their fight against the Taiwanese government’s push for ‘Taiwanese cultural independence.’ We must promote the unification of the Chinese people to revive and rebuild Chinese culture to a new glorious era.”
In response, Liu was quoted as saying: “Chinese culture is the fundamental root linking both sides of the Strait and has long been internalized within the hearts of Taiwanese. However, we are worried about the desinicization programs in Taiwan, and so we hope to enhance cultural exchanges between Taiwan and China to improve mutual understanding and relations.”
“At the same time, we must strive to espouse the wisdom and intellectual values of Chinese culture, thereby binding us together with a stronger force to lay down the basis for peaceful development between Taiwan and China,” Liu was quoted as saying.
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