Beijing announced last week new judicial directives, including the death penalty, for “particularly serious” cases of “irreducible” supporters of the independence of Taiwan – an island claimed by the Chinese authorities.
In response, the island government on Thursday urged Taiwanese people to avoid “unnecessary travel” to mainland China and Hong Kong. It also raised its travel warning to orange, the second-highest level.
A decision criticized by Beijing. The new Chinese directives “target only the very small number of supporters of ‘Taiwan independence’, with malicious actions and remarks,” reacted Friday evening Zhu Fenglian, the spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office – an organ of the Chinese government.
“The vast majority of Taiwanese compatriots who participate in cross-Strait exchanges and cooperation need not have the slightest fear when they come to or leave from mainland China,” she said.
Many Taiwanese, the vast majority of whom have Chinese language and culture, are present in mainland China to work, study or do business.
China considers Taiwan, populated by around 23 million people, to be one of its provinces, which it has not yet managed to reunify with the rest of its territory since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949.
It says it favours a “peaceful reunification” with the island, which is governed by a democratic system. But it has never renounced the use of military force and regularly sends warships and fighter jets around the territory.
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