The South China Morning Post (SCMP), an English-language Hong Kong newspaper that has become increasingly pro-China in recent years, reported on 31 October that China’s practice of forcing Taiwanese nationals to “confess” on official Chinese television in October had a negative impact on cross-Strait academic exchanges. Observers said that Chinese authorities’ actions against alleged Taiwanese “spies” had deterred Taiwan experts on cross-Strait issues from visiting the mainland, further undermining unofficial exchanges between the two sides.
In a series of “televised confessions” in October, the Communist Party’s official mouthpiece, China Central Television (CCTV), exposed four Taiwanese nationals whom it said were engaged in “espionage” activities in China.
CCTV said on October 11 that Chinese authorities had uncovered hundreds of cases of “espionage” and theft of secrets in ad hoc operations over the past year, arresting a number of Taiwanese “spies” and associates, including Li Mengju.
Chi Le-yi, a Taiwanese defense expert, was quoted by South China Morning Post as saying, “I haven’t been to China since the Xin Guan Pneumonia outbreak, and I certainly won’t be going there in the meantime after the spy spree. He said many other Taiwanese scholars had made the same decision because they “didn’t feel safe”.
Alexander Huang Chieh-cheng, another Taiwan expert on cross-strait issues, was quoted as saying that the basis for the allegations of “spying” was questionable, given that China’s judicial system was controlled by the Communist Party and lacked transparency.
Among the four Taiwanese individuals exposed by China Central Television (CCTV), Li Mengju, described by CCTV as a “businessman with ulterior motives,” alleged that after participating in a protest in Hong Kong against changes to the anti-fugitive offenders ordinance, he went to Shenzhen last year and managed to use his mobile phone and video camera to take pictures of military vehicles and armed police units assembling in Shenzhen. Arrested in September in Shenzhen as he was preparing to leave the country. Li Mengju is being investigated under the law for allegedly engaging in “criminal activities that endanger national security”. He admitted in televised footage that he had done many “wrong things” in the past and that he “felt very sorry”.
Taiwan scholar Zheng Yuqin was arrested when he entered China last April and accused of “spying” on the Chinese mainland. He appeared on CCTV on October 12, admitting that he had done things that were harmful to mainland China. CCTV said Zheng Yuqin was suspected of engaging in “espionage” in China and spreading rumors about the “motherland” in the Czech Republic, which had a negative impact on China. According to the data, Zheng Yuqin went to Europe after graduating from his master’s degree and received his doctorate from Charles University in the Czech Republic, where he was involved in setting up The EU-China Economics & Politics Institute to promote the relationship between Czech civil servants or businessmen and China. Exchange.
Shi Zhengping, an associate professor at Taiwan Normal University’s School of International Society, admitted on CCTV to handing over relevant documents to Taiwan’s national security unit. Taiwan scholar Tsai Chin-Shu “confessed” to spying for Taiwan’s Military Intelligence Service to gather “intelligence” for the mainland.
China has reportedly uncovered hundreds of cases of theft of secrets by Taiwanese spies, and more than 100 “spies” have been arrested. Taiwan’s Army Council said in a statement in mid-October that the Chinese Communist Party has “repeatedly and maliciously engaged in political speculation, used national security as a pretext to suppress Taiwan’s exchanges, and falsely accused us of spying to deliberately undermine cross-strait relations.
In an interview with the media, Taiwan’s Executive Yuan President Su Tseng-chang said, “Taiwan has been free and democratic and open for a long time, and there is no need to do such things, no need to be suspicious.”
Taiwan’s Land Commission reiterated that China’s tactics of allowing the parties involved in the case in question to be interviewed by official media and to “confess” and “repent” in the media are completely inconsistent with due process of law, and called on the land side to expeditiously stop practices that are inconsistent with due judicial process.
Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Tsai Ing-wen has rejected the so-called “1992 Consensus” since she was elected president in 2016. China considers Taiwan to be its inalienable territory, and Beijing has cut off official exchanges with Taipei since 2016.
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