Taipei, May 13 (CNA) About 3,000 residents of Taiwan's Matsu archipelago have applied for membership cards that give them discounts when visiting the Chinese city of Fuzhou, Taiwan's deputy national security minister announced on Monday. .
Xu Xixiang, deputy director of the National Security Bureau (NSB), said at a legislative hearing that the bureau is closely monitoring the controversy surrounding the recently launched “Fuzhou-Matsu City Pass.” In February, the Fujian provincial government offered preferential discounts to visitors from the Matsu archipelago.
Hsu said that the NSB learned that as of Monday, about 3,000 Matsu residents had applied for the card, and that all relevant information obtained by the NSB was provided by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), Taiwan's highest government agency. ), it added. About the situation in China.
Hsu did not comment on whether the Lianjiang County (Matsu) government was violating Taiwanese law by helping residents apply for the card, particularly the law governing relations between people in the Taiwanese and mainland regions. avoided.
He said the MAC needs to make that decision, responding to a question from Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker Lam Chu-kei on the issue at a legislative hearing.
Lin said the Lianjiang county government may have violated the law governing relations between people in the Taiwan region and the mainland region by helping county residents apply for the Fuzhou-Matsu City Pass.
Citing Article 33, Section 1 of the law, Lin said that no government agency in Taiwan is allowed to cooperate with a government agency in China without permission from the central government.
Lin and other Democratic Progressive Party members said the “Fuzhou-Matsu City Pass” is part of China's efforts to mislead Taiwanese into supporting eventual unification on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. They claimed that the Lianjiang county government was working with the Chinese government to achieve that goal.
On May 8, MAC Deputy Minister Jan Jyh-horng (詹士宏) consulted MAC in early March after the Lianjiang County government received a request from Chinese authorities to assist in processing the application for the “Fuzhou-Matsu City Pass”. He said he did.
Yang said the MAC recommended that such measures violate Article 33, Paragraph 1 of the Law Governing Relations between the People of the Taiwanese Region and the Mainland Region, and that the county government subsequently halted plans to help facilitate the application. He added that he did.
However, according to media reports in China and Taiwan, the Fujian provincial government issued at least one membership card to a Matsu resident on May 6.
Apart from travel subsidies, membership card holders can also easily enroll their children in schools in Fuzhou, according to a press release issued by the Fujian provincial government in February.
The membership card was also mentioned when the Chinese central government announced 13 beneficial initiatives targeting Taiwanese people during a visit to Beijing by 17 opposition Nationalist Party members from April 26th to 28th. .
