Essay contest may violate the law over CCP ties: MAC

Taipei, May 2 (CNA) An essay competition co-organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) may have violated the Cross-Strait Act, Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said Thursday.

"In this case [referring to the competition], the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP's Fujian Provincial Committee," MAC deputy head and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei.

"It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps," Liang said.

The involvement of a CCP-affiliated partner and the "excessive" financial benefits are "characteristics" of a potential violation of the Act Governing Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (Cross-Strait Act), Liang said.

Those two "characteristics" are usually sufficient to constitute a form of "cooperative activity" as stipulated in Article 33-1 of the law, which prohibits any form of "cooperative activity" with organizations of "any political nature," Liang said.

Liang's remarks came after the MAC said Monday that the Ministry of Education will investigate whether the essay competition, "Reading a Good Book Together," has violated the Cross-Strait Act.

Jointly organized by the Taipei-based Republic of China Zhang Fa Society and the Straits Publishing & Distributing Group in China's Fujian Province, the competition is described as a cross-strait reading and writing exchange program, according to the event's guidelines posted on the Zhang Fa Society's website.

Targeting Taiwanese teachers and students, the competition aims to "promote cultural exchange and emotional connection between teachers and young students across the Taiwan Strait," the guidelines read.

Participants are provided with a list of recommended books and encouraged to submit a reflection essay based on one of them for a chance to win one of around 100 awards from a total cash prize pool of NT$200,000 (US$6,390), according to the guidelines.

The top prize is valued at NT$6,000, the guidelines show.

Those who submit essays are eligible to join a study tour in Fujian, the Zhang Fa Society said, adding that the competition deadline has been extended from April 30 to May 15.

Liang said the achievements of the competition's inaugural edition, held last year, were listed on the official website of the 16th Straits Forum, which the MAC has previously described as a platform for China's "united front" efforts against Taiwan.

Asked for a clearer scope of what constitutes "cooperative activity" under Article 33-1 of the Cross-Strait Act, Liang said China's "united front" tactics are constantly evolving, and if a detailed list were issued, the Chinese authorities could simply develop new strategies to circumvent it.

Liang said not all cross-strait student exchanges violate the Cross-Strait Act, citing as an example cases in which Taiwanese students receive all-expenses-paid arrangements to visit China as part of a mutual agreement between schools on both sides to host each other's students.

"That would be considered a reciprocal arrangement between the two sides," Liang said.

Some activities, however, are one-sided, with the Chinese side covering all expenses, and often featuring officials from the CCP's United Front Work Department or senior government representatives delivering speeches promoting unification to Taiwanese students, Liang said.

In such cases, the MAC feels those activities should be subject to investigation, Liang said.

In response to the MAC's remarks on Monday suggesting a possible violation of the Cross-Strait Act, the Zhang Fa Society issued a statement later that day, describing the competition as a cultural exchange activity based on goodwill and normal interaction between the two sides.

"We urge against overinterpretation or unnecessary assumptions," the society said.