DPP: "National Unity Promotion Law" Has 4 Negative Impacts, an Evil Law to Eliminate Dissent

(CNA, Taipei, July 2, 2024) China officially implemented the "National Unity Promotion Law" on July 1. The Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) Mainland Affairs Department stated today that the law's true purpose is not merely to add a new law to ethnic policies, but to further institutionalize the legal warfare, united front tactics, cognitive warfare, and cross-border suppression that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has promoted in recent years. It will have four major negative impacts on cross-strait relations and is completely incompatible with the values of "pluralism and respect" in Taiwanese society.

The DPP's Mainland Affairs Department posted on its Facebook page today that the true purpose of the "National Unity Promotion Law" is not merely to add a new law to ethnic policies, but to further institutionalize the legal warfare, united front tactics, cognitive warfare, and cross-border suppression that the CCP has promoted in recent years.

The DPP's Mainland Affairs Department listed the negative impacts on cross-strait relations as follows: First, the law incorporates the "community of Chinese nation" into legislation, further linking ethnic identity with "national unification" and "CCP leadership," thereby compressing the space for pluralistic identities and different political stances.

Second, it cooperates with measures such as the "Anti-Secession Law" and the "22 Articles for Punishing Secession" to form a legal warfare system against Taiwan, encompassing political declarations, administrative sanctions, and judicial prosecution.

Third, it elevates the personal risks for Taiwanese politicians, scholars, media, businesses, and civic groups engaging in exchanges with China, and expands the deterrent effect on international friends of Taiwan.

Fourth, by using vague and highly politicized legal concepts, it expands the chilling effect, causing self-censorship in Taiwan and the international community due to concerns about political or commercial costs. This is also the core purpose of cross-border suppression.

The DPP's Mainland Affairs Department emphasized that the "National Unity Promotion Law" may not directly alter Taiwan's legal order, but it clearly demonstrates the CCP's continuous assertion of unreasonable political jurisdiction over Taiwan and overseas individuals through domestic legislation, and its attempt to combine legal warfare, united front tactics, cognitive warfare, and cross-border suppression to influence the behavior and decisions of the Taiwanese people and the international community in their interactions with China.

The DPP's Mainland Affairs Department stated that Taiwan is a democratic country, and its people possess the rights to freedom of speech, freedom of thought, academic freedom, and cultural pluralism. The CCP authorities have no legitimacy to impose their laws, ideology, and political loyalty requirements on the Taiwanese people, nor do they have the qualification to extend authoritarian rule to Taiwan, let alone to the international community.

The DPP's Mainland Affairs Department said that in the face of authoritarian expansion, the DPP will continue to work with like-minded countries to jointly counter cross-border suppression, long-arm jurisdiction, and legal warfare, and to safeguard democracy, freedom, pluralism, respect, and the rules-based international order. (Editor: Chih-chia Chai) 0702

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