In response to the Chinese Communist Party’s Taiwan Affairs Office’s recent claim to implement disciplinary actions against individuals from the Republic of China, the Mainland Affairs Council of Taiwan sternly rebuked the statement, pointing out that the CCP repeatedly attempts to use cracking down on Taiwan independence to create the illusion of promoting unification.
The Chinese Communist Party’s Taiwan Affairs Office stated during a press conference on the 16th that they would “implement disciplinary actions against Shen Boyang, Cao Xingcheng, and the ‘Black Bear Academy’,” and claimed that Taiwan “fabricates the ‘mainland threat,’ ‘democracy and freedom,’ etc.” The Mainland Affairs Council of the Republic of China strongly rebutted this statement.
The Mainland Affairs Council of Taiwan reiterated that the Republic of China is a sovereign and independent country. The CCP has never governed or had jurisdiction over Taiwan, and the Beijing authorities have no right to implement any disciplinary actions against the people of the Republic of China based on its internal regulations. This is a consensus shared by people from all walks of life in Taiwan. If the CCP cannot face the reality of the existence of the Republic of China and pragmatically address the mainstream public opinion in Taiwan, repeatedly attempting to use “crack down on Taiwan independence” to achieve “promote unification” is meaningless, no matter how many individuals are added to the “Taiwan independence list.”
The Mainland Affairs Council of Taiwan emphasized that the people of Taiwan enjoy a political system of democracy and freedom, with constitutional and legal protections of fundamental rights that cannot be deprived of. The CCP’s introduction of the “22 measures to punish Taiwan independence” and the establishment of a “dedicated column for punishing Taiwan independence” and other related measures, by imposing vague and unclear laws on the people of Taiwan, arbitrarily defining “Taiwan independence” as a crime, and abusing power in punishment, seriously violates the bottom line of the rule of law in a democratic country. This not only creates more obstacles and harm to cross-strait exchanges and interactions, but also does not bring any benefits to promoting constructive exchanges between both sides.
Furthermore, the Mainland Affairs Council of Taiwan has repeatedly pointed out that encouraging informants can lead to a trend where many people may unjustly be implicated. The Taiwan Affairs Office of the Chinese Communist Party publicly acknowledged having received hundreds of informants’ clues, indicating that the concerns of the Mainland Affairs Council are not unfounded. No matter how the CCP verifies the information, incorrect actions will only lead to incorrect results. The Mainland Affairs Council urges the CCP to stop in time and focuses on promoting constructive interactions between both sides.
On the afternoon of the 17th, the Mainland Affairs Council of Taiwan held a routine press conference where the Deputy Minister and Spokesperson Liang Wenjie mentioned that the Taiwan Affairs Office’s mention of receiving hundreds of informant clues in the “anti-Taiwan independence” mailbox is expected to rise in the future, because once such a trend is set off, it is difficult to stop. Taking Hong Kong’s establishment of the “National Security Bureau informant hotline” as an example, it received 750,000 reports. Liang reminded the public to carefully consider and be aware of the risks when going to the Mainland.
Liang Wenjie pointed out that there are precedents in the history of the CCP, where as long as informants are instigated as a movement, it will lead to expansion. In 1957, the CCP launched the “anti-rightist movement.” At that time, the top leader of the CCP, Mao Zedong, mentioned that there were about 4,000 rightists nationwide, but in the end, 550,000 people were labeled as rightists, illustrating the consequence of expansion.