By Jonathan Chin / Staff writer, with CNA
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) and China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) yesterday traded barbs over Taiwan’s refusal to grant Chinese actor Zhang Linghe (張凌赫) entry into the nation.
Zhang stars in the popular Chinese period romance TV series Pursuit of Jade (逐玉).
Earlier yesterday, the TAO slammed the Taiwanese government, saying that Taiwan should “cease its political maneuverings and unreasonable restrictions” aimed at impeding cross-strait cultural exchanges.
The press room of the Mainland Affairs Council is pictured in an undated photograph.
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
The MAC said Taiwan welcomes visits by all Chinese entertainers who are not complicit in Beijing’s campaign to undermine Taiwan’s national sovereignty.
Zhang has posted multiple comments on social media denigrating Taiwan’s sovereignty and was a guest speaker at the Straits Forum, a platform for Beijing’s united front work targeting the nation, it said.
Additionally, the entertainer did not provide Taiwanese officials with a sufficiently clear reason for his visit, the MAC said.
The TAO is in no position to criticize Taiwan’s political maneuvering when China organized an attack that left comedian Huang Yi-hao (黃逸豪) injured, vandalized his performance venue and backed a boycott against TV host Kevin Tsai (蔡康永), it said.
“We are confident that people can tell which side is harassing and intimidating entertainers for political purposes,” the MAC said.
Meanwhile, a national security expert warned that Beijing’s celebrations for Retrocession Day on Sunday and the anniversary of Sun Yat-sen’s (孫逸仙) birth next month are a bid to rewrite history to legitimize Chinese claims on Taiwan.
China over the past few years has repeatedly attempted to establish legal justifications for its claims over Taiwan through reframing World War II history, the Central News Agency cited the expert as saying in a government brief.
Beijing had commemorated Retrocession Day no more than once every five years until last year, when the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress declared it an annual holiday, they said.
Similarly, China’s move to celebrate the 160th anniversary of Sun’s birth with fanfare next month is an effort to rewrite history with the narrative that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is the Republic of China’s legal successor and therefore Taiwan’s rightful owner, the expert said.
Beijing is inserting the PRC into historical events that predated the communist state’s founding in 1949, they said.
China is uninterested in history, save for the advantages that come with being its author: the ability to control perceptions, dominate the narrative and provide legal cover for its ambitions to annex Taiwan, they added.