Taiwan’s SEF issues warning over growing censorship of publications by China
Taipei: In response to Beijing’s recent confiscation of Taiwanese textbooks for allegedly breaking the “one China” concept, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) of Taiwan warned the public yesterday about China’s increasing control of publications, according to the Taipei Times.
According to the Taipei Times, the Chinese General Administration of Customs announced on Sina Weibo that its Fuzhou branch had seized three books that were imported from Taiwan because they included “problematic maps” that showed Taiwan as a separate nation and ignored Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea.
These publications “violated the ‘one China’ principle and posed a serious threat to national unification, sovereignty, and territorial integrity,” the bureau said, according to the Taiwan Times.
According to an agency-released video, the items seized were junior high school-level Taiwanese history and geography textbooks.
The SEF responded by pointing out that Beijing is gradually undermining Taiwan’s sovereignty via cross-strait cultural and educational exchanges. According to the Taipei Times, the foundation emphasized that Taiwanese people need to understand that China is not a democracy and that its system is essentially different from Taiwan’s free society.
The SEF also advised people to use care while visiting, working, or doing business in China.
Additionally, according to the Taipei Times, Chinese customs officials have stepped up their control of printed publications pertaining to China’s territorial claims.
According to SEF, customs officials in Nanning, China, recently damaged textbooks belonging to Hong Kong students visiting China and seized maps that failed to designate several South China Sea islands as Chinese territory. In addition, Chinese customs officers have started confiscating or destroying more and more textbooks from Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Additionally, the SEF noted that Taiwan runs schools in Jiangsu, Guangdong, and Shanghai that use textbooks that are imported from Taiwan. Due to challenges in teaching certain courses, remedial classes are held during summer and winter breaks at these institutions, which have been impacted by China’s censorship laws.
Beijing’s actions were questioned by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lai Shyh-bao, who called the book seizures an overreaction. According to the Taipei Times, he said that Taiwanese schools in China had been mailing textbooks without any problems up until this point and suggested that the current seizures may be the result of substantial content changes or a covert goal.
When questioned whether the textbook confiscation were a part of China’s “united front” efforts, Lai dismissed the issue, saying there was no need to concentrate on it since Taiwanese schools in China had to follow Chinese law.
