The Mainland Affairs Council of the Republic of China pointed out recently that from January last year to the present, a total of 65 cases of petitions have been received, with 52 Taiwanese people missing or suspected of being detained after going to mainland China. A senior Japanese media person has warned that the number of Taiwanese people who have “disappeared” in mainland China should be higher than this figure, “even if you think you are a law-abiding citizen, there are still risks when going to China.”
Chairman Chiu Chui-cheng stated in an interview with the host Huang Wei-Han of “POP Bump News” that mainland China issued the “22 Punishments for Independence” last year, adopting inhumane and uncivilized measures such as in absentia trials, lifelong retrospective, and death sentences, coupled with systems that encourage reporting, which damages the emotional connection between people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, creates rifts between them, and brings about significant negative impacts on normal exchanges.
Chiu Chui-cheng emphasized that the Mainland Affairs Council is concerned about whether the personal safety of Taiwanese people in mainland China is being safeguarded, and once again urged the public to pay attention to safety and assess risks when traveling to the mainland. According to statistics from the Mainland Affairs Council, from January 1, 2024, to date, a total of 65 petition cases have been received, with 52 Taiwanese people missing or suspected of being restricted in personal freedom in mainland China.
Japanese senior media person Akiio Yawate posted on Facebook, stating that according to the statistics of the Mainland Affairs Council, 52 people have gone missing or are suspected of being criminally detained on the other side of the strait from last year to now. Moreover, the other side will not voluntarily report, it is only when the Mainland Affairs Council receives reports from family members and requests cross-strait cooperation through mechanisms that they will inform whether Taiwanese people who have gone to the mainland have been detained and where they are being held. This means that if Taiwanese people who have gone to mainland China have no family in Taiwan, or if their family members are unwilling to report, the outside world will not know. Therefore, the number of Taiwanese people “disappearing” in mainland China should be higher than this figure.
Yawate Akiio mentioned that during his 10 years stationed in Beijing, he had long been tracking and reporting on “disappeared Japanese people” in China. In his memory, there were 13 Japanese people who “disappeared” in China during those 10 years. For Japan, this is already a very high number. He couldn’t believe that compared to Taiwan, it was like “a storm in a teacup.”
Yawate Akiio said that among the 52 people mentioned by Chiu Chui-cheng, it does not include his good friend, Fuchi, the chief editor of the Banners Cultural Publishing House. Fuchi went missing in Shanghai in March 2023. Therefore, Yawate Akiio once again reminded everyone: there are risks when going to mainland China.
“Even if you think you are a law-abiding citizen, never committed a crime, not involved in politics, and it seems impossible to be targeted by China’s security agencies, in the eyes of Chinese security personnel, whether you are ‘Taiwanese independence’ is not up to you to decide. If you do not admit it, you will be locked up and tortured for a while, then you will definitely admit it.” Yawate Akiio said.