Whether Advocating Taiwan Independence by Force Is Tantamount to Wiping out ROC: Chen Ming-tong Plays Dumb

  Whether Advocating Taiwan Independence by Force Is Tantamount to Wiping out ROC: Chen Ming-tong Plays Dumb

Source: China Times

April 18, 2019

Yesterday, when the Legislative Interior Committee reviewed a bill titled “Statute Governing Oversight on Cross-Strait Agreements (兩岸協議監督條例),” Chen Ming-tong (陳明通), minister of the Taipei-based Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), appeared before the Committee for interpellations. As President Tsai Ing-wen ordered on April 16 that Mainlanders or foreigners who intended to visit Taiwan to publicize reunification by force should, if necessary, be banned from entering Taiwan, Chen was thus fiercely attacked with questions concerning the issue in both a joint interview with media outlets before the meeting and the interpellation session.

Chen pointed out that on January 2, PRC President Xi Jin-ping tossed out the “Xi’s Five Points,” in which he proposed “the program of one county, two systems for Taiwan” and claimed that the Mainland would never renounce reunification by force. Chen went on to say that as Mainlanders or foreigners who visited Taiwan to publicize the aforementioned advocacies might lead to misgivings of wiping out the sovereignty of ROC or undermining safety of society, they thus would, if necessary, be banned from entering Taiwan.

When asked sharply by a media outlet whether advocating Taiwan independence was tantamount to wiping out the ROC, Chen was unwilling to reply directly to the question, merely saying that “We are talking about Mainlanders or foreigners.”

In the interpellation session, Chen Yi-chieh (陳怡潔), a legislator of the People First Party, pointed out that whether “reunification by force” or “independence by force” would undermine the ROC, asking Chen “Will Mainlanders or foreigners who advocate ‘independence by force,’ such as Cao Changqing (曹長青), also be banned from entering Taiwan?” Chen merely answered that such matters should be handled on a case-by-case basis.

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