June 6, 2018
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today (June 6, 2018) stated that Taiwan severely denounces the malicious imputations made against the government of the Republic of China (ROC) in comments by mainland Chinese officials at the Straits Forum. Over the past two-plus years, the government has fulfilled all of its responsibilities and committed to maintaining peace and stability in cross-Strait relations. Beijing has failed to understand the Taiwanese people's democratic, free, and pluralistic social system and repeatedly missed opportunities to improve cross-Strait relations. On the slightest pretext of speech or actions at odds with their wishes, the Mainland authorities have brutally and peremptorily attacked Taiwan's national dignity, deprived the Taiwanese people of their rights and interests, undermined the status quo of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, and forced Taiwan to relinquish sovereignty by acceptance of its "one China" position. This runs counter to the hopes of mainstream public opinion in Taiwan and is considered throughout the international community to be a serious challenge to the development of cross-Strait relations and regional peace.
The MAC indicated that the Mainland authorities have used the cross-Strait exchange platform to polarize Taiwan through its united front tactics and attempted to lure Taiwan with economic benefits that have ultimately proven to be unsustainable and superficial. The Mainland's ambitions of "cross-Strait integration" and "a shared mindset" will be futile if Beijing continues to follow the wrong path. People of all political parties clearly recognizes the two-faced nature of Beijing's carrot-and-stick approach toward Taiwan. We also again call on mainland China to face the cross-Strait reality, respect the demands of the Taiwanese people, and stop its malicious suppression of Taiwan. The Mainland needs to discard ideological barriers and hold exchanges with all circles in Taiwan, regardless of party, to correctly understand true public opinion in Taiwan and create opportunities for benign cross-Strait interaction.