China's ruling Communist Party is stepping up its " United Front" influence and outreach operations targeting democratic Taiwan, with a cross-straits conference and paid junkets to promote tourism for Taiwanese influencers and celebrities, the island's government has warned.
China's Straits Forum, which opened at the weekend with the aim of boosting exchanges between China and Taiwan, is essentially a "platform" for the Chinese Communist Party's influence operations targeting the island through soft power diplomacy, Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council has warned.
Taiwanese YouTuber Potter King reported last week that dozens of influencers from the island, which has never been ruled by China nor formed part of the People's Republic of China, are being invited to China on expenses-paid junkets during which they will film tourism promotion videos, as part of a United Front operation targeting young people.
“Based on reliable information I have received, Taiwanese influencers will travel to China to shoot videos at the invitation of an organization called Cross-Straits Youth as part of Cross-Straits Youth Culture Month, starting in late July,” Potter King wrote in a June 12 post to his Facebook account.
“I want to let everyone know that the State Council ... has a budget to spend on a United Front battle targeting Taiwanese culture,” he wrote.
Potter King's claim comes after dozens of Taiwanese artists and actors publicly endorsed Beijing's territorial claim on the island by retweeting a Chinese state media post in support of eventual "unification."
That tweet was a response to the inauguration speech of Taiwan's directly elected president Lai Ching-te, who called on Beijing to stop threatening his country, and respect the will of its 23 million people, the majority of whom have no wish to be ruled by the Chinese Communist Party.
It also comes after Chinese actor Hu Ge, who has a massive following in Taiwan, made a flying visit to the island last week to attend a youth exchange forum.
Funding source
Liang Wen-chieh, deputy head of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council, said the Council had looked into Potter King’s claims and confirmed that the scheme does exist.
But he said the celebrities “should be paying for their own flights.”
“Once they land on the other side, the rest of their expenses will be borne by the host organization,” he said.
Liang said the Council will be investigating the source of Cross Straits Youth’s funding.
“We will be paying special attention to where its funding is coming from to invite these people and carry out these activities, because it won't be cheap,” he said. “We are currently looking into it.”
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te, who was Beijing’s least favored candidate in January’s presidential elections, warned on Sunday that China is currently the biggest threat facing Taiwan, which has governed its own affairs as the 1911 Republic of China since the Kuomintang nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek fled to the island after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong’s communists in 1949.
“The biggest challenge is to face down the strong rise of China, which has destroyed the status quo in the Taiwan Strait, and which regards the annexation of Taiwan and the elimination of the Republic of China as part of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” Lai said.
“Our highest mission is to bravely assume the heavy responsibility of protecting Taiwan and maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” he told the island’s military at an event marking the centenary of founding of the Whampoa Military Academy in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong.
‘Healthy’ exchanges
Lai’s comments came after Wang Huning, who ranks fourth in the Chinese leadership, told the opening ceremony of the Straits Forum on Saturday that “unification is a historical necessity for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”
Executive Yuan spokesman Chen Shikai said Taiwan welcomes “healthy” cross-Strait exchanges, however.
“We believe that orderly and healthy cross-strait exchanges are a good thing, but if they involve the United Front, then of course we are not happy to see that,” Chen told reporters on Friday.
Lai Jung-wei, CEO of the Taiwan Inspiration Association, said Beijing appears to believe that Taiwan’s young people are more susceptible to political influence than older residents of the island.
“When young people vote, they tend to vote for candidates over parties, and vote based on their feelings,” Lai said.
“This is of course what Xi Jinping of the Chinese Communist Party wants to make happen,” he said. “Young people are more changeable, and he wants to find ways to convert them.”
This year’s Straits Forum opened in the southeastern port city of Xiamen on Saturday, with the theme of “Expanding civil exchanges, deepening integrated development,” and is being hosted by 86 organizations, according to Chen Binhua, spokesperson for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office.
The Mainland Affairs Council’s Liang also warned on June 13 that Chinese artists and celebrities are welcome to visit Taiwan, but are barred from making statements “harming Taiwan’s autonomous status.”
Taiwan currently bans county magistrates or mayors from traveling to China without prior approval by its government.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Matt Reed.