Direct News: Zhu Fenglian, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said that the mainland side will pursue criminal responsibility for the "Taiwan independence" diehards on the list, including Su Zhenchang, You Xikun, Wu Zhaoxie, and so on, in accordance with the law, and will be effective for life. How do you interpret this?
Special Commentator Liu Heping: It is worth noting that Zhu Fenglian not only confirmed this incident, but also named a very small number of "Taiwan independence" diehards such as Su Zhenchang, You Xikun, and Wu Zhaoxie; second, she listed their crimes one by one, that is, "vigorously inciting confrontation between the two sides of the strait, maliciously attacking and slandering the mainland, plotting 'independence' words and deeds, and colluding with external forces to split the country." As well as collusion with the so-called visit of the European Parliament delegation to Taiwan. This shows that although the Chinese mainland has not taken countermeasures against a few small Central and Eastern European countries, including Lithuania, and members of the European Parliament, this does not mean that Chinese mainland will not find "Taiwan independence" elements to settle the general ledger; third, Zhu Fenglian has also announced specific measures to punish these "Taiwan independence" elements, including prohibiting herself and her family members from entering the mainland and the Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions, as well as prohibiting them from doing business on the mainland for profit, and so on. In my opinion, in particular, the act of prohibiting them from doing business for profit in Chinese mainland has a very deterrent effect and deterrent effect, because many "Taiwan independence" elements or their family members have economic contacts with Chinese mainland, explicitly or covertly.
It is worth noting that this list does not include Tsai Ing-wen and Lai Qingde, the leaders and deputy leaders of the Taiwan region. I think that when Chinese mainland published the list of these people, they have repeatedly weighed the pros and cons, and so far, the highest target of punishment has only been Su Zhenchang, head of Taiwan's administrative department, and has not risen to the level of elected Tsai Ing-wen and Lai Ching-te. This is obviously to leave room for the future development of cross-strait relations. However, if Tsai Ing-wen and Lai Qingde do not take this as a warning, then being blacklisted in the future will be just around the corner.
The birth of this blacklist also means that the "Anti-Secession Law" formulated earlier by the mainland is not a law in a "sleeping" state. Moreover, the mainland must not only use the "Anti-Secession Law" to crack down on the "Taiwan independence" elements as a group, but also accurately attack certain individuals. This obviously means the escalation of the mainland's anti-"independence" and reunification action measures.
Gluxman, president of the inge and French member of the European Parliament
Straight News: What do you think about the so-called European Parliament delegation visiting Taiwan and being personally received by Tsai Ing-wen?
Special Commentator Liu Heping: I have noticed that Tsai Ing-wen herself said that this is the first time in the history of the European Parliament to send an official delegation to Visit Taiwan, which is "of great significance." I think that Tsai Ing-wen's statement is suspected of pouring water on the delegation and putting gold on her face. First of all, this so-called delegation to the European Parliament is only a special committee in the European Parliament called "Interference by Foreign Forces in the Democratic Process of the European Union", and this committee is not a special committee of a permanent nature of the European Parliament, but a committee that has only been established and officially operated last September, and its purpose is to deal with foreign interference in the election affairs of the EU and member states. It is therefore questionable whether this special committee can represent the European Parliament; secondly, even if it can represent the European Parliament, it is doubtful whether the European Parliament can be called an official delegation. Because in the strict sense, the parliament is only a public opinion body, not really official, only the European Commission can be called a real official.
In my opinion, what really deserves our great attention is the ideological color and ideological purpose of this delegation to Taiwan. On the one hand, this special committee called "Interference by Foreign Forces in the Democratic Process of the European Union", both in terms of its name and the motives for its establishment, is full of strong ideological flavor, and it was established to prevent other countries from deliberately interfering with and undermining the electoral and democratic systems of the European Union and the countries within the European Union. Of course, the other countries here mainly refer to Russia.
On the other hand, this delegation has made no secret of the fact that the purpose of their current visit to Taiwan is to learn from the so-called "Taiwan experience." And coincidentally, whether it is Biden's earlier call on the EU to follow the United States in Taiwan affairs, or the European Parliament's recent series of Taiwan-related words and deeds, especially the "Taiwan EU Political Relations and Cooperation Report" just adopted by the European Parliament, it is the sign of defending common ideology and values. This phenomenon also means that in recent times, at the level of the US and European parliaments, a trend of thought has emerged not only to promote the internationalization of the Taiwan issue, but also to ideologize the Taiwan issue, in an attempt to turn the Taiwan issue from a chinese internal affairs issue into a diplomatic issue and from a national sovereignty issue to a human rights issue.
As we all know, for a long time, Chinese mainland has resolutely opposed such a recognition, and we believe that according to UNITED Nations Resolution 2758, the Taiwan issue is only a question of territorial sovereignty and reunification and independence, not a so-called ideological, value and human rights issue. Although there are differences in ideology and values between the two sides of the strait, Chinese mainland are willing to solve them in the form of "one country, two systems." Chinese mainland unswervingly adhere to this principle in order to prevent foreign forces from interfering in China's internal affairs under the guise of ideology, values and human rights. And once the Taiwan issue changes from a reunification and independence issue to an ideological issue and misleads other countries in the world, in the future, foreign forces will find a high-sounding excuse to interfere in China's internal affairs. This is a new challenge that we are currently facing in handling the Taiwan issue.
Straight News: In your opinion, in the face of the so-called visit of the European Parliament delegation to Taiwan, how should Chinese mainland deal with it?
Special Commentator Liu Heping: I think that in view of the new situation that has emerged in recent years because of the interference of foreign forces in the Taiwan issue, at the international level, we must first prevent the further spread of the trend of ideologizing the Taiwan issue from ideologizing the issue of reunification and independence and from the diplomacy of the internal affairs issue; second, we must prevent the EU from gradually normalizing its interference in the Taiwan issue at the instigation of the United States, and eventually "wear the same pants" with the United States; third, we must prevent other countries from following the example of the United States and Europe from intervening in the Taiwan issue. Within the European Union, we must prevent the emergence of several trends, one is to prevent the european parliament from interfering in the taiwan issue, from the legislature to the executive branch, that is, by the European Parliament to the European Commission, leading the European Executive Commission to take similar actions, once at that time, it will really touch the principle and bottom line of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the EU; the second is to prevent small Central and Eastern European countries, including the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania, and other small countries in Central and Eastern Europe. The phenomenon of interference in China's internal affairs on the Taiwan issue has spread to major European powers, including France and Germany, and once such a situation arises, the future Sino-European relations will become more difficult to deal with.
However, the more such circumstances arise, in the face of the so-called visit of the European Parliament delegation to Taiwan and the open support of a few small Central and Eastern European countries, the more the Chinese side must pay attention to proportion and tactics in handling it, not only to adhere to its own principled stand, but also not to blindly emotionally and blindly harden it. The reason behind this is that, first, the European Parliament is only the public opinion organ of the European Union after all, not the administrative organ of the European Union, and in the strict sense, their support for Taiwan does not represent the entire European Union; second, it is precisely because the European Parliament is only a public opinion institution, so it is more emotional, populist and ideological than the administrative body of the European Union, in order to attract the attention of the media and attract the votes of voters, the members of the European Parliament are more likely to make unchecked irrational behavior. That is, Chinese what he called a thorn head, holding on and not going backwards. For example, Gluxman, the head of the delegation who led the delegation to visit Taiwan, was sanctioned by the Chinese side earlier for interfering in China's internal affairs on the Xinjiang issue, so he obviously had the element of personal revenge on his visit to Taiwan; third, don't look at the European Parliament as just a public opinion organ, and when it deals with major issues in Sino-European relations, it not only has more than enough success or failure, for example, not long ago, because China has carried out counter-sanctions against individual members of the European Parliament, it has frozen the "China-EU Investment Agreement indefinitely." And in the long run, the European Parliament can also hold public opinion hostage and sway the eu's executive power. Similarly, in dealing with China-EU relations, small Countries in Central and Eastern Europe, which were once controlled by the former Soviet Union during the Cold War, are prone to emotional, populist and ideological tendencies.
I think it is precisely for this reason that in recent times, whether faced with the provocative behavior of Lithuania and other small Central and Eastern European countries on the Taiwan issue or the outrageous behavior of the European Parliament, China's response has been reasonable, favorable and restrained, that is, it has only made principled protests and not danced along with them.
The author 丨 Liu Heping, special commentator of Shenzhen Satellite TV's "Live Broadcasting hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan".
Typography 丨He Xinying