Taipei, Taiwan — Efforts to maintain exchanges between Taiwanese and Chinese citizens face new challenges after Beijing last month sentenced a Taiwanese activist to nine years in jail, a move that analysts say will create a chilling effect within Taiwan’s civil society.
On September 6, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) confirmed that a court in the eastern city of Wenzhou earlier had sentenced Taiwanese political activist Yang Chih-yuan to nine years in jail under secession charges.
TAO said Yang, who was arrested in 2022 while teaching and participating in competitions for the board game Go, has long been involved in secessionist activities, playing a key role in organizations that advocate Taiwan’s independence. “His acts are egregious and the court reached the decision according to law,” the office said in a statement.
Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, which oversees cross-strait exchanges, condemned the Chinese court’s ruling and asked Beijing to make public the verdict and the evidence that supports the charges.
“Beijing is trying to use Yang’s case to intimidate Taiwanese people and use the pretext of penalizing Taiwan independence as a way to exercise long-arm jurisdiction,” the MAC wrote in a statement released last week.
Yang’s case marks the first time that China used secession charges against Taiwanese people. It comes after Beijing in June introduced 22 new guidelines to punish what they called “die-hard Taiwan independence activists.” The maximum sentence could be the death penalty.
Analysts say the sentencing of Yang represents Beijing’s attempt to take a “more hardline stance” against Taiwanese who promote the island’s sovereignty. His case “shows that Beijing means business when it comes to using legal instruments to crack down on what it regards as ‘separatism,’” said J. Michael Cole, a Taipei-based senior fellow at the Global Taiwan Institute.
“This will inevitably affect people-to-people and civil society exchanges [between Taiwan and China,]” Cole told VOA in a written statement.
Indefinite delay of cross-strait academic exchanges, city-to-city forum
Meanwhile, the scheduled visits by two academic delegations from China’s Xiamen University have reportedly been postponed as Taiwanese authorities review their paperwork.
While some local media outlets said the postponement may be caused by “obstacles” imposed by Taiwanese authorities, Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council said the review of the Chinese delegations’ applications is based on existing procedures, adding that Taipei has no intention to prevent certain groups from visiting Taiwan.
Despite clarification from Taiwanese officials, China’s state-run tabloid Global Times characterized the postponement as the Taiwanese government’s attempt to “block” the Chinese delegations from visiting Taiwan.
“The Xiamen University delegations have completed the preparations in terms of formalities and materials, but related ‘security authorities’ in Taiwan have put ‘a technical hold’ in place while they carry out a review,” Zhang Wensheng, deputy dean of the Taiwan Research Institute at Xiamen University, told the Global Times in an interview.
Some experts say the delay in the Chinese delegation’s trips to Taiwan shows the Taiwanese government may be reviewing how to facilitate cross-strait exchanges amid growing military and political pressure from Beijing.
“In light of Beijing’s heightened pressure against Taiwan, the Taiwanese government may be reviewing what might be a more reciprocal approach to manage cross-strait academic exchanges,” Wen-ti Sung, a Taipei-based political scientist for the Australian National University, told VOA by phone.
In addition to the delay of cross-strait academic exchanges, the annual Shanghai-Taipei City Forum, which remains one of the few occasions for municipal officials from Taiwan and China to meet, has yet to announce a date for a potential 2024 gathering.
When asked in August about the forum, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an told Taiwanese media outlets that at a time when cross-strait tensions are high, it is more necessary for Taiwan and China to maintain communication.
“Such delays serve as a clear reminder that even lower-level engagement is difficult to sustain when one side rejects core aspects of the other’s existence,” Timothy Rich, a political scientist at Western Kentucky University, told VOA in a written response.
Since Taiwan President Lai Ching-te took office in May, Beijing has increased military pressure against Taiwan.
Against this backdrop, Cole in Taipei said the lack of engagement between Taipei and Beijing may increase the risks of miscalculation, which could lead to accidents and escalation.
In his view, Beijing will likely maintain a two-pronged approach against Taiwan in the near future. They will uphold “a suspension of official dialogue with the Taiwanese government led by the Democratic Progressive Party while keeping the door open to sub-state interaction with other elements of Taiwan’s society, with the aim of dividing both,” he told VOA.
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