China has set up a tip line asking people to identify and report "Taiwanese separatist thugs and accomplices." Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council has responded, saying China is increasingly trying to meddle in the country's internal affairs.
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00:00China has launched an email tip line urging people to report what it calls
00:04Taiwanese separatists. One of the people reported Taiwan's interior minister.
00:10Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council is now calling it political interference from
00:14Beijing. Leslie Liao went to the council to find out how they're responding.
00:19Leslie, what is the council saying?
00:24Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council is reacting to China's Taiwan Affairs
00:29Office, which set up an email tip line asking people to report, and I quote,
00:35Taiwan separatist thugs and accomplices. The Taiwan Affairs
00:41Office says that it received over 300 complaints within a nine-hour period.
00:46Complaints about everyone from the interior minister Liu Shifang, to ruling
00:50Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers, to Taiwan prosecutors, and even pro-
00:55independence Taiwanese influencers flooded in. Here's what the Mainland
00:59Affairs Council had to say about the Taiwan Affairs Office's new email tip line.
01:26So quite a strong reaction from the council today. So Leslie, what started all
01:33this? Why are we getting this reaction from China? Taiwan's interior ministry
01:41handles immigration affairs, and what we're seeing is Taiwan feeling ripple
01:46effects from the departure of Chinese influencer Yaya departing Taiwan. Now
01:52Yaya was in Taiwan on a spousal residency permit, but she was forced to
01:57leave the country on Tuesday. Immigration officials say that Yaya made social
02:01media videos advocating China taking over Taiwan by force, which threatens
02:06national security and social stability. So this could be a reaction to her
02:12forced departure. But two more Chinese influencers living in Taiwan have had
02:18their residency permits revoked over pro-unification videos, and they are
02:23required to leave Taiwan by March 31st. And because of these recent cases, there
02:30have been reports of hate speech, and in some rare cases, death threats against
02:34Chinese spouses living in Taiwan. Now here's what the MAC had to say about the
02:39reported hate speech.
02:47Now the Mainland Affairs Council says that Yaya may be allowed back into
03:02Taiwan in a limited capacity to visit family, but that's contingent on her no
03:08longer advocating for unification by force.