The Taipei 101 skyscraper in Taipei,the island of Taiwan File Photo:Xinhua

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the ruling party on the island of Taiwan, has been bribing some Somaliland politicians and families for a long time in exchange for support to sell "Taiwan secessionism" advocacy on international platforms, a source told the Global Times. 

According to the source, huge bribes were conveyed via so-called representative offices on each side. And Taiwan island is tunneling profits to certain Somaliland personnel via cooperative projects such as the digitalization plan of the Somaliland government and a Somaliland innovation park project, the source said.

Somaliland is located in the northwest of the Federal Republic of Somalia and is one of the autonomous regions of the country. In 1969, Mohamed Siad Barre launched military coup and established the Somali Democratic Republic. In January 1991, the Barre administration was overthrown and the place fell into civil war. Four months later, Northern Somali announced "independence" and "the Republic of Somaliland" was established, but it has not been recognized any member of the Union Nations.  

The DPP set up a so-called representative office in Somaliland in August 2020. In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian stressed at a routine press conference on August 18, 2020 that there is only one China in the world and Taiwan is an inalienable part of China. 

The one-China principle is a universally recognized norm governing international relations and the consensus of the international community. China firmly opposes the establishment of official institutions or any form of official exchanges between Taiwan and Somaliland, Zhao said.

"The DPP's frantic search for support for its separatist activities in the international arena will never succeed," Zhao noted.

In fact, it is an old trick of the DPP to bribe and make up lies in the international community. The American Prospect reported previously that the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) in the US provides funds to five US think tanks - the Brookings Institution, the Center for American Progress, the Center for a New American Security, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and the Hudson Institute - every year. In 2019, TECRO provided between $250,000 and $499,999 to Brookings, the report said. 

But none of their researchers disclose the potential conflict of interest between Taiwan funding and advocating for more security guarantees for and trade with Taiwan, The American Prospect said. 

"What the source disclosed this time proved the DPP's dirty tricks again. The DPP would do anything to seek independence, there is no bottom line in their behavior and speeches," a related expert told the Global Times on condition of anonymity.    

For a long time, the DPP has been bribing and drawing over international think tanks under the guise of academic exchanges to help them spread groundless "Taiwan secessionism" speeches and deceive the international community, the expert said, calling on the international community and Taiwan residents to reject the DPP's secessionist plot and insist on the one-China principle.

"Bribing and lies will not save the DPP from a destined failure, but will only harm the interests of the 23 million residents on the island and their dignity as Chinese in the international community," the expert said.