Beijing to Update Blacklist of Taiwanese Pro-Independence Figures, Financiers

Taiwanese political figures who favor independence from China will be barred from traveling to the mainland under an updated blacklist from Beijing, which will also include their family members and those who finance their political campaigns.

According to a statement by the Taiwan Affairs Office in Beijing viewed by the South China Morning Post, among those blacklisted are Premier Su Tseng-chang, Legislative Yuan president Yu Shyi-kun and Foreign Minister Joseph Wu, all of whom were added for “vigorously inciting cross-strait confrontation and malicious attacks against the mainland.”

All three are members of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), a Taiwanese nationalist party seen as embracing a radically pro-independence faction of Taiwanese politics in contrast to the Kuomintang or Chinese Nationalist Party, which favors a closer relationship with the People’s Republic of China, but not reunion.

Wang Jianmin, a Taiwan issues specialist at Minnan Normal University in China’s Fujian province, told the Hong Kong-based paper that the move could cripple the DPP’s political future, as many of Taiwan’s biggest political donors have sponsored politicians on the list.

“Many of these entrepreneurs have a lot of business activities in the mainland, so they have to consider if they dare to support the three [blacklisted politicians and their] relatives any more after this punishment is announced, which has a great deterrent effect,” Wang said, adding that “it is intolerable that these enterprises gained a lot of profit in the mainland while supporting Taiwan independence, and they are now panicking and have to stop.”

Notably absent from the list are Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, who heads the DPP, and her vice president, Lai Ching-te, the latter of whom just a few months ago referred to Taiwan as “a sovereign state” that was “not affiliated” with the People’s Republic of China (PRC). However, a Chinese adviser told the SCMP the list would continue to be updated as needed.

The news comes weeks after Tsai confirmed the presence of US troops on the island, which documentation published by the Pentagon and Taiwanese Defense Ministry subsequently revealed extends back to at least 2008, and has included both permanently stationed troops and rotations to the island for training.

Beijing denounced the actions as “provocative” and said the US was “playing with fire,” with Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Tan Kefei saying that “Taiwan is an integral part of China. The US has grossly interfered in China's internal affairs, seriously damaged China's territorial sovereignty, and threatened peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”

The Taiwanese government, which calls itself the Republic of China, is all that remains of the republic declared in 1912 when the Xuantong Emperor abdicated the throne. In 1949, when the Red Army defeated the RoC on the mainland and established a socialist government in Beijing, it was unable to invade Taiwan, leaving the rump government intact. Both governments subsequently claimed to be the rightful Chinese government, but over the decades, all but a handful of nations have switched their recognition from Taipei to Beijing. The PRC regards Taiwan as a province in rebellion and an integral part of China that is destined to be reunited.

So does the United States, which signed three communiques with Beijing in which it committed to ending its support for the government in Taipei. Nonetheless, Washington has continued to funnel weapons and political support to Taiwan. A bill recently introduced to the US Congress would produce a $2 billion annual military aid package to Taipei until 2032 to provide for its defense against China.