《TAIPEI TIMES》 Taiwan warns travelers as China surveillance widens

National Security Bureau Director-General Tsai Ming-yen, front, attends a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee in Taipei yesterday. Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times

SHARP EYES: With China’s economic incentives becoming less effective at influencing Taiwanese, Beijing has had to rely increasingly on other measures, the NSB’s head said

By Huang Ching-hsuan and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writer

Beijing carries out comprehensive and systematic surveillance of visitors and residents within its borders, and Taiwanese traveling to China should pay close attention to their personal safety following China’s implementation of the Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law, National Security Bureau （NSB） Director-General Tsai Ming-yen （蔡明彥） said yesterday.

Speaking at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, Tsai said the law, which took effect on Wednesday last week, gives Chinese authorities broad discretion because of its vague definition of acts that “undermine ethnic unity.”

Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers Chen Chun-yu （陳俊宇） and Lin Chu-yin （林楚茵） asked about the law’s potential impact on Taiwanese visiting China.

Tsai said the law uses nationalism to justify Beijing’s domestic, foreign and cross-strait policies, bolstering the Chinese Communist Party’s control at home while expanding coercion abroad.

The law is intended to help Beijing advance its goal of countering Taiwanese independence advocacy, while promoting unification, he said.

The law amounts to transnational repression by extending China’s coercive reach beyond national borders, drawing concern and condemnation from the international community, Tsai said.

The European Parliament earlier this year passed a resolution urging member nations to suspend extradition agreements with China.

Tsai said that Taipei would not allow Beijing to use the ethnic unity law to pressure Taiwan, but warned that Taiwanese traveling to China should remain cautious, because Chinese authorities have broad latitude in interpreting the law.

A precedent was set in 2024 when China’s Provisions on Administrative Law Enforcement Procedures for State Security Organs took effect, authorizing state security officers to question, detain and inspect the electronic devices of Chinese citizens and foreign visitors, he said.

China has developed a nationwide digital surveillance network centered on the Skynet surveillance system, as well as the Sharp Eyes program, enabling authorities to track people’s movements through biometric data, hotel registrations, mobile phone location information and transportation records, he said.

China’s surveillance systems incorporate facial recognition technology, and Chinese police have also used gait recognition, Tsai said.

Anyone who becomes involved in matters that Beijing deems to be covered by Chinese law could find themselves subject to state-level surveillance while in China, he said.

Beijing’s overall objective toward Taiwan remains the annexation of the country and the elimination of Taiwan’s sovereignty through military and non-military means, he said.

With China’s economy weakening, economic incentives have become less effective at influencing Taiwanese, leading Beijing to rely increasingly on hybrid coercive measures, Tsai said.

The trend coincides with public opinion surveys by the Mainland Affairs Council showing growing support among Taiwanese for maintaining the “status quo” and rising opposition to unification with China, he said.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES