China\u2019s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) said that they will \u201cpunish\u201d five Taiwanese TV commentators for being critical of China, reported Taiwan News. TAO spokesperson Chen Binhua, in a press briefing, said China would impose sanctions on five Taiwanese TV commentators, including Wang Yi-chuan, Edward Huang, Lee Cheng-hao, Yu Pei-chen, and Liu Baojie. Chen further claimed that they \u201cdeliberately fabricated false and negative information\u201d about China and \u201cinstigated cross-strait confrontations.\u201d<\/p>\n
He alleged their \u201cerroneous remarks deceived some Taiwanese people, incited hostility and confrontation across the strait, and hurt the feelings of compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.\u201d Chen said Beijing would \u201cpunish the five individuals and their families under the law\u201d, Taiwan News reported. \u201cTo remain silent and condone evil is to be unjust and harmful to goodness,\u201d Chen added. Public opinion is not outside the law, and any behaviour that fabricates, spreads rumours, disrupts social order, and damages national honour and interests will be punished by law, Chen stressed, reported Taiwan News.<\/p>\n
Responding to questions on mentioning the specific sanctions and whether Taiwan\u2019s institutional guarantee of freedom of speech would lead to increasing distance between Taiwan and China, Chen referred to previous measures by China against Taiwan\u2019s independence and emphasised that freedom of speech is not beyond the law, \u201cnor is it a talisman or shield for wrongdoing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Notably, previous measures taken by China against Taiwanese pro-independence figures, included, prohibiting them and their families from entering China, Hong Kong, and Macau, restricting their affiliated organisations from cooperating with China-related entities or individuals, and not allowing their associated businesses and sponsors to profit in China, Taiwan News reported, citing, Yahoo News.<\/p>\n
Earlier on Wednesday, Taiwan\u2019s Presidential Office spokesperson Olivia Lin said that Taiwan is a democratic country and \u201cthe Constitution expressly guarantees people\u2019s freedom of speech.\u201d Lin further stressed that \u201cChina has no right to interfere,\u201d Taiwan News reported. In retaliation, Lin said that the government would spare no effort to ensure the safety of the Taiwanese threatened. Lin pointed out that the Beijing authorities have long lacked institutional confidence and have consistently used various forms of suppression and threats against dissenting voices at home and abroad, as reported by Taiwan News.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is common knowledge that people and media reporters have been detained and persecuted, which has consistently kept China\u2019s human rights ranking at the bottom,\u201d Lin said. Lin continued, that this time, China\u2019s leaders not only showed no signs of improvement but also extended their infringement on democratic freedoms to Taiwan, naming and threatening media personnel and their families.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis arbitrary and overbearing behaviour not only deepens the mistrust of Taiwan but also further tarnishes China\u2019s international image,\u201d said Lin. Moreover, Lin called on China to align with Taiwanese society and face the values of freedom, democracy and diversity more confidently. \u201cOnly through mutual respect and a pragmatic attitude toward promoting cross-strait exchanges can the relationship between the two sides of the strait be improved and the well-being of the people enhanced,\u201d Lin said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
China\u2019s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) said that they will \u201cpunish\u201d five Taiwanese TV commentators for being critical of China, reported\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":44477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[186],"tags":[158,7556,14080,4806,11201,8881,14081,681,165,14079],"class_list":["post-44476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-china","tag-chinese-communist-party-ccp-influence","tag-criticizing-china","tag-diplomacy","tag-distrust","tag-freedom-of-the-press","tag-hostility","tag-sanctions","tag-taiwan","tag-tv-commentators"],"reading_time":"3 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}