Tourists enjoy the scenery of Yangming Mountain Park in Taipei on February 27, 2019. Photo: Xinhua

Experts warned secessionists from the island of Taiwan to abandon their illusion of colluding with secessionists from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) to justify their separatist actions and attempt to subvert the "one country, two systems" framework for national reunification. 

The Chinese experts also stressed that Western forces have been "active" in meddling in Hong Kong and Taiwan affairs, but the future of the SAR and the island will not be held hostage by secessionists and their supporters. 

Recent violent protesters in Hong Kong have been slammed and condemned for jeopardizing the city's stability and rule of law, but they have been echoed by Taiwan's regional officials and secessionist forces. 

The protests are aimed at an extradition bill, which was meant to address a homicide involving a Hong Kong resident murdered in Taiwan and to plug loopholes in Hong Kong's overall mechanism in juridical assistance. The bill will enable Hong Kong to transfer fugitives to Taiwan and the Chinese mainland.

Some radical protesters took to the streets using opposition to the extradition bill as an excuse to storm and vandalize the LegCo chamber, severely trampling on Hong Kong's legal system and disrupting the region's social order. 

Taiwan officials chimed in, attempting to exploit events in Hong Kong for their own political gain. Regional leader Tsai Ing-wen has vowed to ensure the island's defense, warning of lessons from Hong Kong. Su Tseng-chang, the chief of Taiwan's executive body, has warned the island of following Hong Kong's footsteps for small gain, media reported. 

In June, Huang Kuo-chang, a major figure in the 2014 "Sunflower Movement" against the cross-Straits service trade agreement, and Hsu Yung-ming, a Soochow University political scientist, funded the so-called "Taiwan-Hong Kong alliance front under Taiwan's Legislative Yuan" in Taipei out of "concern for their counterparts" in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong legislators, including Nathan Law Kwun-Chung and Joshua Wong Chi-fung, student leaders of the Hong Kong Occupy protest, attended a tea party to "celebrate the establishment of the organization."

Since the Hong Kong secessionists launched the illegal Occupy protest, they have never stopped trying to separate Hong Kong from China. Some of them have fled to Taiwan to support Taiwan secessionists and collude with them to challenge the central government and the "one China, two systems" policy. 

Analysts believe the move is the latest evidence of the continuing collusion between pro-secession activists in the two regions. 

Yang Lixian, a research fellow at the Beijing-based Research Center of Cross-Straits Relations, told the Global Times on Wednesday that some Taiwan secessionists, along with Tsai Ing-wen and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), hyped Hong Kong's protest to win support ahead of the upcoming 2020 election. "They have their own agenda," Yang said.  

After Tsai publicly supported the radical Hong Kong protest, polls suggested that Tsai's approval rating has been rising. 

By hyping the protest and tarnishing "one country, two systems," Tsai hopes to steer public attention away from many problems Tsai's party is facing, such as a lackluster economy, Yang noted. 

Echoing Yang, Chang Ya-chung, a professor at the National Taiwan University, told the Global Times that "the politicians and media in Taiwan just simplify the situation in Hong Kong to incite the Taiwan people's hatred and antagonism toward the Chinese mainland." 

In late June, the program of Taiwan TV commentator Huang Chih-hsien was suspended after she said Hong Kong police were violently beaten up by protesters. Huang claimed her show is the first in Taiwan to dare expose the truth, and she believes her show was suspended because it messed up the collusion plans of secessionists from Hong Kong and Taiwan.

But Chang noted the majority of Taiwan residents just focused their attention on the situation in Hong Kong and did not show any support to Hong Kong secessionists. 

Tourists visit the Green Island in Taitung, Taiwan on June 29, 2019. Photo: Xinhua

Best approach 

Zhang Dinghuai, a professor at the Center for Basic Laws of Hong Kong and Macau Special Administration Region of Shenzhen University, pointed out that Hong Kong protesters and Taiwan secessionists believe they have foreign support, which makes them more "confident," but foreign powers are merely using them as leverage to contain China's development.

They [foreign forces] are just using the chaos to divide the societies of Hong Kong and Taiwan, trying to separate them from the Chinese mainland, Zhang told the Global Times. 

On June 26, An Fengshan, a spokesperson of the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, criticized recent moves by Tsai and the DPP on Hong Kong, saying that the principles of "peaceful reunification" and "one country, two systems" are the best approach to achieve national reunification.

Taiwan secessionists' collusion with Hong Kong protesters, along with foreign anti-China forces, will only deepen the division of Taiwan society and make Taiwan's future more uncertain, Chinese analysts said.  

Yang added that their collusion will worsen cross-Strait relations and make the mainland more determined to speed up the reunification of Taiwan.
Newspaper headline: Taiwan separatists warned against helping HK