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the ambassador of China at France warned on Wednesday (03) of Beijing’s intention to seek a “re-education” of Taiwan’s population after its “reunification” with the country, using the same expressions of the regime’s persecution of the Uighurs when threatening to repress the Taiwanese opposition.
Diplomat Lu Shaye is generally seen as a hardliner — but one that accurately reflects Beijing’s message to the rest of the world. He made the threatening remarks during an interview with French network BFMTV while discussing US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan this week.
His comments could serve to heighten global alarm over China’s intentions to absorb Taiwan, as such a re-education policy would likely only be possible if China invaded the island.
“Ten years ago, 20 years ago, the majority of Taiwanese people were in favor of reunification, but why are they against it now? It is because the Democratic Progressive Party has spread a lot of anti-Chinese propaganda,” he said of Taiwan’s ruling political party.
Pressed by the presenter of the program, Lu clarified: “After the reunification, we will do the re-education”. Although Chinese Communist Party officials talk of reuniting Taiwan, the party has never controlled the island, which continues to claim independence. Lu’s claim that most Taiwanese were in favor of reunification ten years ago is also false.
The reunification mentioned by Lu would only happen after a brutal invasion of the island. In the same interview, he said the possibility of a Chinese attack on Taiwan “always exists”, but stated that “it would not be against the population”.
In his appearance on BFMTV, Lu said he believes the Taiwanese population is becoming more supportive of accepting the Beijing government and is even more “patriotic,” probably referring to the Chinese regime.
And, despite stating in the interview that China could invade the island, Lu said that any re-education effort would be peaceful and “non-threatening”, clarifying that it would not be a “mass” re-education.
However, the party’s “re-education” campaign in China’s far west Xinjiang region puts Uighurs and other ethnic minorities in prison camps. Detainees are subjected to nationalist brainwashing, among other atrocities, in concentration camps and across the region.
In January 2021, the US State Department determined that the Chinese “re-education campaign” is part of a genocide that aims to assimilate the Uighurs and even erase their existence as a people.
Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials claim that the “re-education campaign” in Xinjiang is necessary due to an alleged extremist Uighur independence movement. This idea was also present in the ambassador’s comments.
“The problem is that the Progressive Democratic Party has spread extremist propaganda,” he said. Lu accused the Taiwanese ruling party of engaging in an independence campaign. “If we don’t react, if we don’t respond, they will achieve their goal of independence.”
While the Democratic Party is generally seen as more aggressive towards China than Taiwan’s other main party, the Kuomintang, it is not in favor of a formal declaration of independence.
And while Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen has said that the world should recognize that Taiwan exists independently of Beijing, she has not gone to any lengths to formally declare the island’s independence.
Lu is known as a controversial Chinese official for his history of provoking high-profile diplomatic incidents during his time as ambassador to France.
In the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, in early 2020, the Chinese embassy’s Twitter account claimed that a Chinese diplomat testified that French elderly care facilities left their residents “to die of hunger and disease”. He also falsely claimed that French lawmakers had referred to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus using a racial slur.
After these incidents, Jean-Yves Le Drian, then French Foreign Minister, summoned Lu to a meeting, commenting on the country’s outrage over his false statements.
The following year, the French Foreign Ministry summoned Lu again, for two days in a row, to speak about the embassy’s harassment of French academic Antoine Bondaz – a researcher specializing in China and Taiwan – and about threats related to Western sanctions against China. for the atrocities done to the Uighurs.
Jimmy Quinn is National Review’s national security correspondent.
©2022 National Review. Published with permission. original in English.
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