Missing Taiwan writer being dealt with according to law: Beijing

Beijing, Dec. 13 (CNA) Beijing confirmed Wednesday that China-based Taiwanese writer Liao Meng-yen (廖孟彥), whose family has been unable to contact him for over a year and who recent online posts have claimed has been imprisoned, is being investigated in China.

Liao's case is being "handled in accordance with the law," China's Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) said Wednesday at a regular news conference.

However, Zhu did not confirm online posts claiming Liao, who uses the pen name Roson (羅森), has already been sentenced to more than 12 years in prison.

Zhu said that after consulting relevant government departments, the defendant (referring to Roson) is suspected of "producing, selling, and distributing obscene material for profit" and the case is being "handled in accordance with the law."

Asked whether Liao's case has been discussed via contacts between Taiwan's semi-official Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and its Chinese counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), Zhu said that since the SEF no longer recognizes the "1992 consensus," semi-official contacts across the strait are suspended.

This was the first time the Chinese government commented on the case.

On Tuesday, the SEF confirmed that it was contacted by Liao's family last week and said it would seek information on the case via existing communication channels between the SEF and ARATS.

Liao is a China-based writer of online erotic fiction, specializing in fantasy Chinese martial arts novels, who has not been in contact with his family since the second half of 2022.

According to information shared by netizens in China and Taiwan, rosonbbs.com, a China-based website dedicated to adult novel reading and selling run by Liao for many years, became inaccessible in September 2022 and the last post on his Weibo account was on Nov. 12, 2022.

A Chinese Internet user broke the "news" via an online post on Nov. 30 claiming that following a trial involving rosonbbs.com, Liao was sentenced to 12 years and nine months in prison, while three other writers for Liao's website were also given jail terms of 10 years, eight years and six years.

That message was re-posted on Dec. 1 by Taiwanese netizens on the popular PTT, the largest terminal-based bulletin board system (BBS) in Taiwan, which sparked discussion among local online users.

The 1992 consensus is a tacit understanding reached in 1992 between the then Kuomintang (KMT) government of Taiwan and the Chinese government. It has been consistently interpreted by the KMT as an acknowledgment by both sides that there is only "one China," with each side free to interpret what "China" means.

Beijing, however, has never publicly recognized the second part of the KMT's interpretation.

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has never acknowledged the "1992 consensus," arguing that Beijing does not recognize the Republic of China (Taiwan) and that acceptance of the consensus would imply agreement with China's claim over Taiwan.

Beijing considers Taipei's acceptance of the "1992 consensus" a prerequisite for dialogue between the two governments and has cut off all SEF-ARATS communications since the DPP came to power in 2016.