Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council spokesman Chiu Chui-ching said that, to date, there are still 48 missing Taiwanese in China whose whereabouts have not been confirmed.
At an Oct. 15 press conference, Chiu again reminded Taiwanese of the risk of arbitrary detention in China, noting that many so-called Taiwanese spies are detained in the course of normal academic exchanges.
He said Taiwanese government authorities are investigating the cases of those who are still missing and have contacted the individuals who filed the missing persons reports.
Since May 20, 2016, SEF Taiwan has received 149 reports of Taiwanese missing in China, Chiu said. Of the missing persons, 101 have returned home or informed Taiwanese officials of their detention, while 48 remain missing.
The Chinese authorities have recently stepped up their “anti-espionage” campaign against Taiwan. On October 11, China’s official media, China Central Television (CCTV), staged another televised confession on its “Focus Interview” program, showing an interview with Taiwanese citizen Li Mengju, who told the camera that he had done many wrong things in the past and “felt very sorry” for them. In the same day’s program, the TV station said that Chinese authorities had launched special operations over the past year, successfully uncovering hundreds of cases of espionage and secrecy theft and arresting a number of Taiwanese spies and associates, including Li Mengju.
According to a research report released in June 2018 by the international human rights organization Defender, from July 2013 to February 2018, media professionals, human rights lawyers, and NGO personnel, including 37 Chinese citizens, Hong Kong residents, and foreign nationals, made 45 televised guilty pleas, including Gao Yu, Lin Rongji, Swedish citizen Gui Minhai, owner of Causeway Bay Bookstore, and Swedish human rights worker Peter Dahlin.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has repeatedly and maliciously arrested and fabricated false and incriminating scenarios against people involved in cross-strait exchanges under the name of “uncovering spies,” said Qiu Chui-cheng at a regular press conference at the Land Commission on Thursday (Oct. 15), deliberately undermining cross-strait relations and normal academic exchanges.
The Land Commission “condemns the Beijing authorities’ crude attempts to disrupt Taiwan society and intimidate the people of Taiwan,” Qiu Chuzheng said, and issued a stern warning to the other side of the Taiwan Strait that “such harsh operations should be stopped immediately.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokesperson Zhu Fenglian said in a press release Friday (Oct. 16) that the statement by Taiwan’s Land Commission that “149 cases of Taiwanese compatriots have gone missing in the mainland” is seriously at odds with the facts and is completely malicious speculation. She said, in fact, with the “assistance” of the mainland authorities, many of the so-called “missing Taiwanese” have already contacted their families or returned to Taiwan.
A day earlier, the Chinese Communist Party media People’s Daily published a bylined article on October 15, “Standing on the Right Side of History – Suit to Taiwan’s Intelligence Ministry,” accusing Tsai’s government of colluding with “external forces,” including the Chinese government. “Let “Taiwan’s intelligence agencies actively act as pawns for Taiwan’s separatist forces for independence, committing acts of injustice and disobedience”. The article warned “Taiwan independence activists” not to “seek their own desperate path”. However, the article, signed by An Ping, concluded by “welcoming the insightful people who support the reunification of the motherland in Taiwan’s intelligence agencies to visit the motherland more often and have a look.
The People’s Daily article is considered to be rhetorical but hollow, with nothing new to say except that it is a combination of intimidation and united front work.
Disappearances have been prevalent in China since Xi Jinping came to power. According to the NGO Safeguard Defenders, there are two systems of disappearances in China today – residential surveillance at designated residences and a new national oversight committee under China’s new National Security Council. The new “lien” system. These two systems legalize the disappearance of persons.
Most of the people who go missing in China are accused of “espionage” or are suspected of political crimes such as “inciting subversion of state power”.
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