A court in China sentenced a Taiwanese man to five years in prison Tuesday over his advocacy of democratic government, a verdict that could drive two old rivals further apart instead of nudging them toward Beijing’s eventual goal of unification.
A court in China sentenced a man from Taiwan to five years in prison Tuesday over his advocacy of democracy, a verdict that could drive the rival governments further apart instead of nudging them toward Beijing’s eventual goal of unification.
A court in southern city of Yueyang convicted Lee Ming-che, 42, of subverting state power. He had used social media to discuss democracy with users of a popular messaging service in China, his supporters say. Chinese state-run news outlets say the social media group was aimed at overthrowing the government.
The sentence, which can be appealed nor shortened for parole, will deter Taiwanese from going to nearby China for work, travel or business, some on the island say. The case may also chill official relations, which are already poor after decades of distrust and a lack of dialogue over the last 18 months.
“Taiwanese people will worry that today’s verdict makes clear the gaps between us,” said George Hou, a communications lecturer at I-Shou University in Taiwan. The sentence will “lead people to be more careful when going over there, even maybe considering not going.”
China and Taiwan have been separately ruled since Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists moved their base of operations to Taiwan after losing the Chinese civil war in the 1940s. China claims sovereignty over Taiwan and sees formal dialogue as a conduit to eventual unification.
Officials in Beijing resent Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen for rejecting their insistence — which they have set as a condition for dialogue — that both sides belong to one country. Since Tsai took office in May 2016, the government in Taiwan says, China has added pressure by sending an aircraft carrier around the island, cutting back on tourist arrivals and persuading two countries to stop recognizing Taiwan’s independence. The two sides talked from 2008 to 2015.
Lee’s verdict will “inevitably have a serious negative effect on cross-strait relations,” Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council said in a statement.
The island’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, for which Lee had worked in a branch office 10 years ago, said in a statement that the defendant had been “concerned about the development of democracy and freedom in mainland China and shared and exchanged views with friends about Taiwan’s democratic experience.
