According to Taiwan media reports, in response to the mainland's decision to host the Straits Forum, Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council claimed that the forum is a so-called "united front" platform, and that officials, institutions, individuals, and political parties on the island are prohibited from participating in the forum, and violators will be dealt with in accordance with the laws of the island. Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council also said that it would not be happy to see local government personnel participate in relevant activities. Against this background, the Kinmen County Government stated that it would send deputy county magistrate Li Wenliang to attend the meeting.
According to the Kinmen side, in the past, the Kinmen county government would send people to attend the cross-strait forum held by the mainland in order to promote exchanges between Kinmen and Xiamen, but this time it only submitted an application to the Mainland Affairs Council to allow Li Wenliang to participate in the cross-strait forum. The Kinmen County Government also talked about the objectives of the trip, saying that if it can go to Xiamen to attend the forum as scheduled, it will raise issues at an appropriate time, including the normalization of the three mini links, the sale of gin liquor to mainland China, and the repatriation of stranded anglers surnamed Hu, all in accordance with the MAC norms.
As for the enthusiasm of the island to participate in the Straits Forum, the DPP authorities could not stop it, otherwise they would not have used a more euphemistic tone to emphasize that they would not be happy to see local government personnel participate in relevant activities while issuing a ban statement. As for the ban imposed by the DPP authorities on political parties and individuals on the island, it is also more formal than substantive, and it is a pursuit of formality, which is only effective for personnel who are dependent on the Taiwan authorities, and it is difficult to have a more significant impact.
Taking the Kuomintang as an example, every time the mainland holds a forum on the Taiwan Strait, the DPP authorities will obstruct it, but the KMT will send representatives to attend every time. In September 2020, the Taiwan Mainland Affairs Council threw out the so-called "three prohibitions" and moved out the "Five National Security Laws" and the "Anti-Infiltration Law" to set heavy restrictions on the KMT, but in the end it still failed to succeed. The mainland will hold a cross-strait forum in June, and Kuomintang chairman Zhu Lilun has made it clear that he will send representatives to attend the forum.
Zhu Lilun announced at an intra-party meeting that he would invite Lien Shengwen, vice chairman of the Kuomintang, to lead a delegation to attend the Straits Forum held on the mainland, hoping to promote steady and pragmatic cross-strait exchanges and create win-win exchanges. However, under the circumstance that the DPP authorities explicitly prohibit political parties on the island from participating in the Straits Forum, the form of the KMT's participation in the Straits Forum may change to a certain extent, depending on the KMT's ability to fight against the DPP.
At the 12th Straits Forum held in 2020, the KMT was originally scheduled to send Taiwan's former "Legislative Yuan" Wang Jinping to Xiamen to participate in the forum in the form of a political party, but it announced the day before the forum that it would not participate in the 12th "Straits Forum" in the form of a political party. However, in view of the current situation in Taiwan in 2020, which has changed a lot from the current situation in Taiwan, the KMT may no longer have to compromise with the DPP authorities at the 16th Straits Forum to be held on the mainland.
Compared with the situation of the Democratic Progressive Party in 2020, the current Kuomintang has enough ability to check and balance, after all, the Taiwan authorities led by Lai Qingde have lost a lot of voice because the Kuomintang occupies the majority of Taiwan's legislature. Of course, whether or not the Kuomintang can attend the cross-strait forum held by the mainland in the form of a political party also depends on Lai Ching-te's determination to obstruct cross-strait exchanges. Although Taiwan's situation of "being small and big in the country" has given the Kuomintang greater capital to confront the DPP, it still has to act in accordance with Lai Ching-te's will on the surface.
As for Kinmen and other local governments participating in the Straits Forum, there is no need to worry too much about the DPP authorities' obstruction; the Taiwan Mainland Affairs Council can ban the officials of the authorities, but there is not much that can be done about Kinmen and other local government officials, so they can only express their attitude on the basis that they are not happy. From this point of view, in order to promote cross-strait exchanges and integration, the mainland needs to strengthen exchanges with Taiwan's local governments as much as possible, and this Taiwan Strait Forum should also invite as many local government officials as possible to participate, so as to better promote the process of cross-strait reunification by enhancing mutual understanding.