Experts discuss Taiwan question at the Global Times annual forum “World Changes and Challenges under COVID-19”in Beijing on Saturday. Photo: GT

After participating in the Global Times Annual Forum 2020 on Saturday, two attendees from Taiwan say they have been targeted by pro-secessionist forces and a "lawmaker" of the separatist Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the ruling party of the island, even called for an investigation into pro-reunification activists in Taiwan on Sunday. 

In a session at the Global Times Annual Forum 2020 on Saturday, guests from both sides of the Taiwan Straits were invited to discuss "The possibility of the peaceful reunification between the Chinese mainland and the island of Taiwan."

The session was presided by Huang Chih-hsien, a TV commentator from Taiwan and an expert on cross-Straits ties. Two guests in Taiwan - Chiu Yi, a Taiwan-based scholar on cross-Straits relations, and Chang Ya-chung, a Taipei-based political scientist and member of the Kuomintang (KMT), also attended the forum via video calls.

Huang, Chiu and Chang are well-known pro-reunification figures on both sides of the Taiwan Straits. At the forum, Huang and Chiu both criticized secessionists on the island for damaging the cross-Straits ties and diminishing the possibility of peaceful reunification. 

The pro-secessionist Taiwan media Liberty Times reported on Sunday that DPP "lawmaker" Wang Ting-Yu called for the Taiwan "national security" authority to investigate Huang and Chiu after accusing them of having connections with the Chinese mainland and wanting Taiwan to be reunified with the mainland.

Huang told the Global Times on Sunday that "didn't Tsai Ing Wen [the head of the DPP, the regional leader of the island] say that no resident of the island of Taiwan need to apologize for their self-identity? So now am I under threat of being arrested?" 

Huang said that "as a Chinese from Taiwan, we should think about the island's future, and how to love the island in an authentic way." 

"Taiwan has been coerced by the DPP which has a monopoly on 'Taiwan secessionism,' and now the party threatens to use legislation against the people, forbids people from thinking and expressing what's good for Taiwan. The authority is fascist," she said.

"Just because I support reunification, I'm being threatened by the 'national security act'? I am just an ordinary person, how come I don't have freedom of thought? Why can't I talk about reunification, and whether it's good for Taiwan? How come I don't have freedom of speech? Why has the DPP brazenly violated human rights and use the 'national security act' to suppress the public opinion?"

Why does Taiwan's "so so-called 'human rights' only give freedom to 'secessionism', while providing no room for reunification?" asked Huang.