Beijing has added Taiwan’s interior minister and education minister to its sanctions list of “stubborn Taiwan independence figures” for behaviour it said undermined cross-strait relations and promoted Taiwan independence.
Chen Binhua, spokesman for Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO), said on Wednesday that Interior Minister Liu Shyh-fang and Education Minister Cheng Ying-yao had been designated as “stubborn Taiwan independence figures”.
Liu and Cheng are cabinet members in William Lai Ching-te’s administration and belong to the ruling independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
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They join second-in-command Hsiao Bi-khim and Defence Minister Wellington Koo Li-Hsiung on the list, along with other politicians in Taiwan. Lai, the island’s leader, is not on the list.
The sanctioned individuals and their families are banned from entering mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau. All companies associated with them are also prohibited from engaging in profit-making activities in mainland China.
Chen accused Liu of “blatantly promoting separatist ‘Taiwan independence’ rhetoric”, as well as “persecuting mainland spouses in Taiwan and actively creating obstacles to cross-strait personnel exchanges”.
