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https://scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3005915/taiwan-deports-mainland-chinese-scholar-li-yi-over-planned-pro
China/ Politics

Taiwan deports mainland Chinese scholar Li Yi over planned pro-unification speech

  • Academic was due to speak at a forum organised by the Chinese Unity Promotion Party, which officials say would have violated his tourist permit
  • He has been banned from visiting the island in the future
Renmin University researcher Li Yi was expelled from Taiwan on Friday morning. Photo: CNA

Taiwan has deported mainland Chinese academic Li Yi for trying to promote cross-strait unification under the “one country, two systems” model, a move certain to infuriate Beijing.

Li, a sociology researcher with Renmin University of China, was expelled on Friday morning on the grounds that he was due to deliver a pro-unification speech, which the island’s immigration authorities said was a violation of his tourist entry permit and “could endanger national security and cause public unrest”.

“We have listed him as persona non grata and he is restricted from visiting Taiwan in the future,” the National Immigration Agency said in a statement.

Travellers who visit Taiwan for tourism are not allowed to work while they are on the island, while giving a speech that is politically sensitive is also prohibited and visitors face deportation if they do so.

Li, who is said to live mostly in the United States, is known as an advocate of the use of force, if necessary, to unify self-ruled Taiwan and mainland China.

Li Yi had been invited to speak at a forum in Taichung on the prospects for peaceful cross-strait unification. Photo: CNA
Li Yi had been invited to speak at a forum in Taichung on the prospects for peaceful cross-strait unification. Photo: CNA

He was invited by the Chinese Unity Promotion Party (CUPP) to speak at a forum on the prospects for peaceful cross-strait unification on Saturday in the central city of Taichung.

According to a poster put up by the party, Li was planning to speak about Beijing’s proposal for unification under the “one country, two systems” model that is used in Hong Kong and Macau.

Immigration officials said Li had applied in August for a multiple-entry permit to visit Taiwan as a tourist and had travelled to the island three times since then.

The officials said after they found out about the speech, they decided to revoke Li’s permit, issuing a notice asking him to leave by the end of Thursday or face deportation.

But Li, in a post on his Weibo social media account, said he was in Taiwan for sightseeing and he had been visiting Yushan, or Jade Mountain, when the immigration authorities issued the notice.

Officials from the CUPP, which invited Li to speak, said it was “absurd” for the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party government to expel Li on the basis of a poster.

“Li had not actually made any public or political speech. How can it be possible for the authorities to revoke his visa and ask him to leave when nothing had actually taken place?” said a CUPP official who declined to be identified.

As well as the forum, the party has also organised a march in Taichung on Saturday to promote cross-strait unification. Li had planned to leave Taiwan two days later.

Chiu Tsui-cheng, spokesman for Taiwan’s policymaking Mainland Affairs Council, said people who did not respect the island’s sovereignty and who promoted Chinese President Xi Jinping’s proposal for unification under the “one country, two systems” model were not welcome.

He said speeches like the one Li was scheduled to give did not respect mainstream opinion in Taiwan.

“All people here must uphold the national sovereignty, freedom and democracy, which is the consensus view in Taiwan,” Chiu said.

Beijing sees Taiwan as a breakaway province to be taken back by force if necessary. Relations across the strait soured after Tsai Ing-wen, of the DPP, became president in 2016 and refused to accept the one-China principle.

Mainland China has stepped up pressure on Taiwan since then, suspending official communications with the Tsai government, poaching its diplomatic allies and conducting military drills near the island. In January, Xi called for cross-strait unification under the “one country, two systems” framework, prompting the Tsai government to take a tougher stance on Beijing.