Civic groups call for probe of KMT head after visit to China - Taipei Times

• By Chen Yu-fu and Esme Yeh / Staff reporter, with staff writer

Civic groups yesterday said that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) was acting as a political puppet for Beijing, calling for an investigation of alleged collusion with external enemies.

Cheng on Friday met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Beijing. On Sunday, China unveiled 10 new "incentive measures" for Taiwan, including plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China's Fujian Province to Taiwan, and to push for the "full normalization" of direct cross-strait passenger flights.

Headed by Taiwan Society North, the groups told a news conference in Taipei that the "big gift" Cheng brought back to Taiwan is modern version of a Trojan horse.

Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times

The groups raised questions over her China visit, saying her proposal of a "cross-strait peace framework" and related political positions were more political signaling than part of a substantive exchange.

Cheng's remarks echo the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) "united front" narratives and portray Taiwan's issue of sovereignty as an internal matter, potentially crossing legal red lines, they added.

The Cheng-Xi meeting was an under-the-table deal between the KMT and the CCP unauthorized by Taiwanese, Northern Taiwan Society president Lo Chun-hsuan (羅浚晅) said.

The meeting was not a dialogue, but curated political theater, he said.

Cheng must be held accountable for selling out Taiwan, and an investigation should seek to determine if her meeting contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法) or the Criminal Code, Lo said.

The groups condemned the endorsement of CCP's narratives to undermine Taiwan's sovereignty, he said, adding that the CCP's 10 measures to "benefit Taiwan" is like a Trojan horse, as the benefits would not be delivered without submitting Taiwan to the CCP's political agenda.

Attorney Fang Yen-hui (房彥輝) said that the KMT has revealed its true intention and reduced itself to a tool of the CCP's "united front" strategy, as Cheng traveled through the Taiwan Strait to endorse Beijing's "one country, two systems" narrative.

People who collude with a foreign state or its agent with intent to subject the territory of the Republic of China to another state could be sentenced to death or life imprisonment, he said.

Those who prepare or conspire to commit such offenses could be sentenced to a jail term of up to 10 years, he added, urging judicial authorities to promptly investigate the meeting.