Taiwan’s top Mainland Affairs Chairman Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said that Taiwan would not allow Beijing to continue shunning President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) and his administration while actively engaging with opposition leaders.
In an interview with Nikkei Asia on Friday, Chiu said that Taiwan cannot turn a blind eye to what he described as Beijing attempting to sow division. He underscored that, “as for visiting Taiwan Affairs Office personnel [from China], we will not allow them in as we did in the past,” and that these visitors must also be willing to meet with officials of the Lai Administration “on the basis of equal dignity”.
Chiu stressed that the government's primary concern, following the CCP’s recent publication of 22 articles to punish Taiwan independence separatists last June, was the safety of overseas Taiwanese in China. He also accused Beijing of incorrectly painting the DDP as provocative and unreasonable, saying the door to dialogue with the Chinese government is always open where China insists that all dialogue happens only on the premise of a shared agreement on the One China policy.
U.S. President-elect Trump will be sworn in on January 20, marking the beginning of the new administration dubbed “Trump 2.0”. Chiu reiterated that Taiwan is committed to working with partners such as Washington to defend its sovereignty and maintain the cross-Strait status quo. Even though Trump will be accepting high-level CCP officials at his inauguration, a source close to Chiu and the Republican party said that his stance is reasonable, adding that the U.S. controls all incoming diplomatic visits at the federal level.
Czech think tank European Values Center for Security Policy Director Jakub Janda told Nikkei Asia that he backs up Chiu’s point of view. He said that as long as Beijing refuses to communicate with official Taiwanese representatives, denying entry is acceptable and similar to international policy practiced in the U.S. and Europe, which obliges foreign representatives to declare exchanges during visits.