Beijing accused of pressuring Spanish university to drop Taiwanese cultural event

A Taiwanese academic has accused Beijing of pressuring a prestigious Spanish university to axe a cultural event for the island last year through its embassy in Spain, alleging that Madrid directed the college to cancel the plan.

The University of Salamanca, sometimes referred to as the “Oxford of Spain”, dropped two days of programming for the event in October, after the Chinese embassy in Spain demanded it be cancelled, according to Shiany Perez-Cheng, who taught at the university from 2008 to 2017.

“Taiwan Cultural Days” had been organised by a group at the university and was scheduled to run over three days, on October 19, 25 and 26.

Inspired by other scholars researching Beijing’s influence operations, Perez-Cheng published emails last week showing the embassy’s education affairs office had ordered the university’s social sciences dean José Manuel del Barrio to cancel the cultural event to avoid an “unpleasant incident” that would impact the college’s relationship with mainland China.

Beijing considers the self-ruled island of Taiwan a breakaway province, and has objected to any indications otherwise.

“We wouldn’t like your institution to be used by Taiwanese authorities as a platform for their political propaganda, it would affect the university’s good relations with China,” the embassy’s email, dated October 23, reportedly said, in a veiled threat that referenced the many mainland Chinese scholars and students at the university.

The embassy is said to have taken issue with the Taiwanese representative to Spain, Simon Ko Shen-yeaw, being invited to speak at the event’s inauguration on October 19, saying it “causes confusion and misunderstandings about the Taiwan problem”.