According to the Taipei Times and the United Daily News, Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council has criticized China's sanctions on two ministers of Taiwan's diplomatic allies and on a company tied to the father of a DPP mayoral candidate as transnational repression and economic pressure meant to interfere in the election. Beijing has described its measures as lawful steps.
Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has pushed back strongly over the past three days against a series of Chinese sanctions. According to the Taipei Times and the United Daily News, the council sees them as an attempt to pressure Taiwanese society and sway the local elections at year end. Beijing's explanations differ from case to case, so this report separates the two sides' claims.
광고 문의 · 300×250Sanctions on ministers of allies and the repression charge
The Central News Agency reported that China's Foreign Ministry announced sanctions on October 12 against Paraguay's information and communications technology minister, Gustavo Villate Samaniego, and Belize's foreign minister, Francis Fonseca. The orders freeze their assets in China, bar Chinese organizations and individuals from dealing with them, and deny visas and entry, including to Hong Kong and Macau. Both countries have diplomatic ties with Taipei.
MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) strongly condemned the move to reporters at the Legislative Yuan on October 13, calling it a new form of transnational repression against Taiwan in which China applies extraterritorial legal tools to Taiwan's friends. He said it harms others without benefiting China, will deepen Taiwanese resentment and push cross-strait relations further apart, and that MAC will take countermeasures he did not specify. The CNA report did not carry a specific reason given by Beijing.
The sanction on a candidate's father's company, and both accounts
On October 14, the Taiwan Affairs Office announced a ban on dealings with mainland organizations, firms and individuals for VWAY, another company linked to Shen Tu-cheng (沈土城), father of DPP Taipei mayoral candidate Puma Shen. The United Daily News reported that spokesperson Chen Binhua (陳斌華) said Shen Tu-cheng had used the firm to keep trading with mainland companies and profit, evading the sanction placed in June 2025 on his company Zhaoyi Co. On October 13 the pro-Beijing Hong Kong outlet Ta Kung Wen Wei had reported that the firm traded with mainland companies for just over six months, with volume of nearly US$700,000.
In a written statement on the evening of October 14, MAC said the sequence of a Hong Kong media report followed by a Taiwan Affairs Office sanction repeats last year's pattern, and called it economic pressure on a particular camp and candidate meant to coerce society and interfere with a democratic election. It said the government would fully protect citizens and companies and defend Taiwan's free and democratic system. Beijing's stated position is that the measure targets alleged evasion of earlier penalties, and it did not publicly cite the election.
In late August the DPP's China Affairs Department warned that cooperating with Chinese election interference could bring up to 15 years in prison, with rewards of up to NT$20 million for reporting it. With the November elections approaching and both national security officials and parties discussing interference, the dispute is likely to stay in the news. No public data on the actual economic impact of the sanctions was available, so that remains unconfirmed.
