A Taiwanese legislator accused a director of the Taipei-based Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) of promoting Beijing’s strategy to take over the self-ruled island amid China’s ongoing incursions into Taiwans waters and arispace.
New Power Party (NPP) member Chiu Hsien-chih rebuked businessman John Peng, who is also an SEF director, on Facebook on March 29 for placing an advertisement in a local newspaper to underscore Taiwan’s “peaceful reunification” with China, which aligns with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) attitude on the issue.
“He [Peng] is becoming the mouthpiece of the CCP,” Chiu told The Epoch Times on March 31. “His advertisement isn’t convincing.”
To fully understand the consequences of Beijing’s “peaceful reunification,” the legislator urged the public to explore the deplorable conditions of the people in the regions of Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong under the Chinese communist regime.
“As the son of ’the ‘butcher of Kaohsiung,’ he [Peng] lacks empathy for other people’s suffering under China’s authoritarian rule,” he said.
Chiu hinted that Peng’s father, the late General Peng Meng-chi, was responsible for indiscriminate killing of locals in the southern city of Kaohsiung in the February 28 incident in 1947. Across the island, tens of thousands of civilians were slaughtered by the Nationalist troops during the revolt triggered by police beating a woman caught smuggling cigarettes.
In the advertisement, Peng cited a 4-step roadmap that Beijing might take to defeat Taiwan without having to send in a single soldier. It consisted of crippling Taiwan’s military facilities with missiles; paralyzing the Taiwanese economy by bombing parts of utilities, including power plants and public transit, without hurting lives and livelihood; blocking every passage into and out of the island; and pressing for an ultimate talk.
However, the lawmaker dismissed Peng’s alleged roadmap as a “fantasy.”
“Ukraine has set a precedent for asymmetric warfare by its resistance to the Russian aggression,” said Chiu. “Vladimir Putin has yet to conquer the nation one month after his launch of the invasion. Russia has already paid a hefty price [for its action].”
He also noted, “The Taiwan Strait [as a barrier] would make the CCP’s military attack more challenging.” Meanwhile, China would face severe sanctions from the international community, according to Chiu.
“Peng is intimidating the Taiwanese people in favor of Beijing,” said the former NPP chair. “Considering the quasi-governmental nature of the SEF, I don’t think it’s appropriate for him to continue to sit on the board of the agency. Taiwan would face higher risks if the Tsai administration did nothing in response to his comments.”
Additionally, Chiu hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and the United States. He urged the U.S. government to do more to deepen Taiwan’s involvement in international affairs, including recognizing it as an independent sovereign nation, whose population of 23 million is much larger than Luxembourg, Switzerland, or any other tiny European country.
