Anti-infiltration bill is tool to ensure Tsai’s reelection: China Daily editorial

It should be no surprise that the anti-infiltration bill was passed in Taiwan’s legislature on Wednesday since it is dominated by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party. 

It should also be no surprise that it has been passed ahead of the island’s election on Jan 11. 

And it should come as no surprise should the bill have a chilling effect on the island’s ties with the Chinese mainland.

The DPP said the legislation is aimed at combating efforts by Beijing to influence politics and the democratic process on the island, claiming that it will prevent illegal campaign contributions, the staging of political events, the spread of misinformation and other acts that could affect Taiwan’s elections or the work of the government.

By doing so the DPP can kill two birds with one stone: using the bill as a tool to suppress the election campaigns of opposition parties such as the Kuomintang, People First Party and New Party; and closing the door on exchanges across the Taiwan Straits.

That being the case, how can the bill be providing greater guarantees for Taiwan’s democracy, as Tsai claims? 

Under the new legislation, anyone who receives funding, instructions or donations from “external forces” to mobilize public rallies, for election campaign activities, or lobbies government officials or lawmakers, or disrupts the social order could be jailed for up to five years and fined up to NT$10 million ($334,000).

With exchanges across the Straits having expanded to the extent they have now, it is too easy to claim exchanges are infiltration.

With no clear descriptions about its terms such as funding, donations and even instructions, there is enough reason to believe that the bill will likely be a basket, in which the ruling DPP can put whatever things it wants.

As a result, such worries hold water that a “white terror” could be created by the bill and those who get investment from the mainland could be jailed and so would be those who have close exchanges with the mainland.

As such, relations across the Straits will be seriously affected or even ruined since the island leader Tsai Ing-wen said in explicit terms on Wednesday that the island will not accept the “one country, two systems” political formula.

So this bill can also be understood as being part and parcel of Tsai’s strategy to further sabotage ties across the Straits, which she believes will increase her chances of being reelected.

But one thing she should never forget is the fact that the further she and her DPP go on the road to secession from the mainland, the more likely it is that the mainland will take back the island by force. 

When such a scenario turns out to be next to reality, she and her DPP will be deserted by the people on the island.