A report by the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and American Enterprise Institute (AEI) says China is expanding sanctions and pressure to the relatives of people it has labeled ‘diehard Taiwan independence separatists.’ Beijing says the sanctions stem from the business conduct of the companies involved.
The Taipei Times reported on Oct. 24 on a US report saying Beijing is targeting the families of ‘separatists.’ According to CNA and Mirror Media, the report is the Oct. 20 edition of the China & Taiwan Update jointly published by ISW and AEI, which found that pressure has expanded from politicians themselves to their families’ businesses and networks.
광고 문의 · 300×250The first case cited is Democratic Progressive Party Taipei mayoral candidate Puma Shen (沈伯洋). On Oct. 14, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) sanctioned VWAY, a company owned by Shen’s father, barring Chinese organizations, firms and individuals from dealing with it. Pro-Beijing Hong Kong newspapers Wen Wei Po and Ta Kung Pao had reported the matter a day earlier.
Around the same time, the TAO said it had denied entry to the brother of former UMC chairman Robert Tsao (曹興誠), who has funded the Kuma Academy that Shen co-founded. The report also cited Interior Minister Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳), whose nephew working for a Taiwanese company in China was investigated and dismissed in April after she was placed on the ‘diehard’ list early this year.
The report also pointed to the arrest this month by US authorities of a woman accused of surveilling President William Lai’s (賴清德) eldest son in the US. The charge is to be tested in US courts and has not been proven.
The report’s reading and both sides’ positions
The report said the tools now extend to business dealings, relatives’ employment, entry eligibility and personal safety abroad, apparently aiming to use relatives to stop targets’ political activity and to warn like-minded people. CNA said the report cited polls showing Shen narrowing his gap with incumbent Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) from 10 percentage points to 1.2 points since his May nomination, concluding Beijing seeks to influence November’s local elections. Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council condemned it as deliberate election interference.
Beijing’s account differs. Mirror Media reported the TAO said Shen’s family continued dealing with Chinese firms through other companies after Kuma Academy-related firms were sanctioned; Shen countered that his father’s normal business in Ecuador had been distorted. Chinese authorities have long said such measures target only a tiny number of ‘diehard’ separatists, not Taiwan compatriots at large, and no Chinese response to the report itself could be confirmed.