China releases black list of Taiwanese 'secessionists' banned from Hong Kong and Macau
The sanctioned officials include Taiwan’s prime minister, foreign minister and parliamentary speaker. The Chinese government is ready to prosecute those on its list. China attacks MEPs visiting Taiwan. European countries are afraid about their relations with China.
Beijing (AsiaNews) – The Chinese government has drawn up a black list of "stubborn Taiwanese secessionists" who are banned from entering China via Hong Kong and Macau, this according to Zhu Fenglian, spokesman for mainland China’s Taiwan Affairs Office.
The measure mainly affects three Taiwanese leaders, namely Prime Minister Su Tseng-chang, Foreign Minister Joseph Wu and Legislative Yuan (parliament) Speaker You Si-kun.
This “punitive” measure extends to family members and activities by Taiwanese citizens included in the list.
According to Beijing, the sanctioned people are guilty of instigating “cross-strait confrontations, maliciously attacked and slandered the mainland, sought ‘independence’ with bad words and deed”.
Charges of separatism include the accusation of collaborating with foreign forces to divide the country, damage relations between Communist China and the island, and seriously endanger the region’s security.
China considers Taiwan a “rebel province”, and has never ruled out using force to take it.
The island has been de facto independent since 1949 when Chiang Kai-shek's nationalist forces fled the mainland after losing the civil war against the Communists, claiming to be the heir to the Republic of China founded in 1912.
Zhu added that the Chinese government is ready to prosecute the people on the list.
Yesterday the Chinese Foreign Ministry used no less threatening words to criticise the recent visit to Taiwan by a delegation from the European Parliament.
For spokesman Wang Wenbin, “The clumsy show of a few people won't shake in the slightest the international community's universal and firm commitment to the one-China principle or the inevitable trend of reunification of China.”
Yesterday, the head of an EU parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan, Raphael Glucksmann, told Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen that her country is “not alone” and that Europe is on the side of the island in defending freedom and the rule of law.
The French MEP described Taiwan as the most “vivid, enlightening” democracy in the Indo-Pacific region, and a “treasure that democrats around the world should cherish and protect”.
Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu's recent European tour is a sign of Taipei's strong diplomatic activism. The Taiwanese envoy again asked the European Union to open negotiations with his country in order to ink a bilateral investment agreement.
However, like several of its member countries, which do not want to jeopardise their relations with China, The European Union has so far proved reluctant to go ahead on this point.
Speaking to AsiaNews, a spokesman for the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade pointed out that on 26 October Prague did not sign any formal agreement with a trade delegation from Taipei, noting that the two sides only held economic “consultations”.
He added that the "15+1" group is a useful tool for the Czech Republic to develop bilateral relations with China.
The 15+1 group is an economic forum that brings together China and 15 countries in central, eastern and southern Europe, 11 of which belong to the EU. Lithuania recently left the forum.
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02/05/2006
