The Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) yesterday urged the public to be aware of China’s increasing censorship of publications after Beijing seized shipments of Taiwanese textbooks for contradicting the “one China” principle.
The Chinese General Administration of Customs recently wrote on Sina Weibo that its Fuzhou branch had confiscated three books shipped from Taiwan due to “problematic maps” showing Taiwan as a country and not recognizing Beijing’s claims in the South China Sea.
The books “contravened the ‘one China’ principle and severely endangered national unification, sovereignty and territorial integrity,” it said.
Photo: Taipei Times
A video published by the agency suggested the confiscated material were Taiwanese history and geography textbooks designed for junior-high school students.
The SEF said that Beijing continues to use cultural and educational exchanges between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait to further its efforts to impugn Taiwan’s sovereignty.
Taiwanese should understand that the Chinese government is not a democracy and has nothing in common with Taiwan’s free society, it said, adding that people who work, travel or do business in China should exercise caution.
Chinese customs has cranked up censorship regarding printed materials revolving around China’s territorial claims, it said.
Customs officers in Nanning, China, seized maps that did not label islands in the South China Sea as Chinese territories and textbooks of Hong Kong students traveling in China were destroyed, the SEF said.
Textbooks mailed or carried by Taiwanese and Hong Kongers have been increasingly been confiscated or destroyed by Chinese customs officials, the SEF said.
Taiwan operates schools in China’s Shanghai, Guangdong and Jiangsu, which rely on textbook shipments from Taiwan that have been affected by Chinese censorship, it said.
The schools have arranged for Taiwanese students to receive remedial lessons in Taiwan during the summer and winter vacations, as censorship has made many subjects impossible to teach, it said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) called Beijing’s book seizures an overreaction, saying that Chinese authorities were “making a big deal out of nothing.”
Taiwanese schools in China have annually sent textbooks by mail for use without harassment until now, he said, adding that Beijing might have confiscated the books for significant changes in content or some ulterior motive.
Asked if the textbook seizures were part of China’s “united front” efforts, Lai said there was no need to dwell on the subject, as Taiwanese schools in China are subject to Chinese laws.
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