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MAC cautions against China's united-front tactics against Taiwan

ROC Central News Agency

2007-11-24 13:24:36

    Taipei, Nov. 24 (CNA) China has manipulated almost every cross-Taiwan Strait exchange activity to try to win over the Taiwan people with its united-front tactics, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Vice Chairman Liu Te-hsun said Friday.

    Liu said the situation has upset the balance in cross-strait exchanges and is unwelcome to the government of Taiwan.

    Liu made the remarks during a conference held by the Institute for National Policy Research to review cross-strait exchanges over the past 20 years.

    He noted that since exchange of visits between Taiwan and China began in 1987, Taiwan people had made more than 45 million trips to China as of Sept. 30 this year, and mainland Chinese people had made 1.83 million trips to Taiwan.

    Over the years, cross-strait exchanges have been seen in various forms, including marriages, professional exchanges, tourism and the hiring of Chinese crewmen by Taiwan's fishing boat operators, Liu said, adding that the exchanges have given rise to many problems threatening Taiwan's national security and public order, such as an influx of illegal immigrants, Chinese people overstaying their visas in Taiwan for illegal employment, and the use of united-front tactics by China against Taiwan.

    According to Liu, Taiwan's youth have in recent years become the main target of China's united-front tactics.

    In what Liu called an important indicator of China's cultural united-front tactics against Taiwan, Liu said approximately 50 tour groups made up of a total of more than 3,000 Taiwan students visited China on Beijing's invitation this past summer, and there is a trend in which China is focusing its efforts on students in central and southern Taiwan and is expanding its target from undergraduates to high school students.

    In addition, China has frequently invited local-level Taiwan politicians, especially those with great influence in central or southern Taiwan, to visit China, Liu said, noting that more than 100 members of Taiwan's county or city councils attended forums held by China in 2005 in Nanjing and 2007 in Qingdao.

    He urged Chinese authorities to deal with cross-strait exchanges with a "normal mentality, " instead of infusing political elements in them, in order to normalize the exchanges and help enhance the depth and quality of the exchanges.

    As China's political interference is unavoidable in cross-strait exchanges, Taiwan must use laws to regulate the activities to block China from achieving its political objectives, he said.

(By Y.F. Low)

ENDITEM/Li