Taiwan’s Kuomintang appointed Wang Jin-pyng, the former speaker of the Legislative Yuan, to participate in the upcoming 12th Strait Forum in Xiamen. A China Central Television (CCTV) programme nearly jeopardised the annual cross-strait meeting, by criticising Wang’s planned visit as a trip to “beg for peace”. KMT chairman Johnny Chiang protested about the description on his Facebook page, saying that CCTV had misrepresented his party’s efforts to pursue peace, and he demanded an apology. The forum has served as a useful platform to exchange opinions since the first meeting in 2009, and eventually led to the first face-to-face encounter between Xi Jinping and Ma Ying-jeou, the leaders on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. The forum will also create an atmosphere in which to ease tensions, at a time when Chinese warplanes are entering Taiwan’s air defence identification zone and Tsai Ing-wen, the leader of Taiwan, keeps testing the limits of her cross-strait counterpart. If I may be so bold, the CCTV should make an apology as there is still a little time before the forum begins. Lee Kwok Keung, executive member, Hong Kong & Kowloon Trades Union Council Scottish leader gets it right on British PM Bravo to Nicola Sturgeon, for expressing her contempt (shared by us all) for the British prime minister. Boris Johnson’s intent to break international law is abhorrent and reeks of irony (“ Brexit is imploding and looks like Boris Johnson is engineering it ”, September 10). Johnson’s government condemns China for failing to honour its pledge to uphold the rule of law in Hong Kong, yet finds it perfectly OK to undermine the foundation of the Good Friday Agreement to serve his own political ambition. Mark Peaker, The Peak Beijing’s aim was never in doubt, it is now in view I am writing in response to your September 13 article, “ Language rules for Inner Mongolia another step to erode ethnic groups in China ”. In recent years, conspiracy theories about the forced re-education of China’s minority ethnic groups have appeared in the news. Now the policies of Beijing are revealing the ambitions of the Communist Party. It is trying to achieve national unity through cultural assimilation, as the article mentions. The aims of Beijing are clear to see. We just did not know of these before 2017. Fears of cultural genocide have made ethnic Mongolians choose to stand up to the Communist Party. To Beijing, it is of paramount importance to brainwash the minority ethnic groups, starting with the local culture and language. Educational reforms are the first step. Once the government successfully replaces the local language with Mandarin Chinese, no doubt it will take more steps towards cultural assimilation. The protests in Inner Mongolia autonomous region address just the tip of the iceberg. How Beijing has treated its minority ethnic groups since 2017 is alarming. It is a warning to the world. I would like to draw attention to the meaningful 2016 quote from the ethnic Mongol anthropologist Uradyn Bulag who is currently based in Britain: “The difference in the definitions of autonomy by China and the West lies in its direction … China wants integration as a single entity.” Coco Siu, Wong Tai Sin
