《TAIPEI TIMES》MAC bars central and local officials from Straits Forum

Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Liang Wen-chieh fields questions from reporters during a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times

By Jonathan Chin / Staff writer, with CNA Taiwan would not allow personnel from either central or local governments to attend the Straits Forum starting on Saturday next week in China’s Xiamen, Mainland Affairs Council （MAC） Deputy Minister Liang Wen-chieh （梁文傑） said yesterday.

“The Straits Forum serves as the Chinese communist government’s platform for deploying ‘united front’ tactics against Taiwan, whose goal is infiltrating Taiwanese society under the pretext of cross-strait exchange,” he told a routine news conference in Taipei.

The move signaled a hardening of the government’s stance that had barred only central government personnel from participating in the summit, not their counterparts in local government.

The policy change was prompted by China’s continued efforts to infiltrate Taiwanese politics and society, Liang said, adding that the council has the authority to regulate elected officials and civil servants’ movements in China.

Public university administrators and local government personnel, among them Taitung County Commissioner Yao Ching-ling （饒慶鈴）, should shortly expect their applications to attend the forum to be rejected, he said.

Government policy forbids personnel from facilitating the Straits Forum in Taiwan, attending the event in China, engaging in any activity aimed at neutralizing national sovereignty, or promoting the “one country, two systems” formula in Taiwan, he said.

Government officials and workers are not allowed to take part in unauthorized negotiations with Beijing, Liang said.

While private individuals are not banned from attending, the MAC urges Chinese Nationalist Party （KMT） Vice Chairman Chang Jung-kung （張榮恭） — who is heading the party’s delegation to Xiamen — to refrain from acts or comments that would legitimize Beijing’s narratives surrounding Taiwan, Liang said.

Such behavior would make its participants tools of China-directed subversion targeting Taiwan, he said.

Private citizens visiting China might incur legal penalties should they breach stipulations under the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area （臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例）, Liang said.

The MAC further reminds the public that traveling in China might pose safety risks, he added, referring to Beijing’s national security legislation and the so-called “Anti-Secession” Law.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES