Tsai's attempt to sever relations across the Straits doomed to failure
The 12th Straits Forum, an annual meeting organized since 2009 to promote people-to-people exchanges between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan, held in Xiamen, Fujian province, on Sunday, was the first cross-Straits event since the COVID-19 outbreak and echoed the aspirations of civil society on both sides to increase exchanges across the Straits.
But the pro-independence Tsai Ing-wen administration in Taiwan, which has been hindering cross-Straits exchanges, said an "anti-infiltration law" will be used to penalize any potential "violator" in order to prevent the island's political parties, organizations and residents from participating in the forum.
Tsai and her ruling Democratic Progressive Party have been taking advantage of the pandemic to advance their "Taiwan independence" agenda while serving the United States' strategy to check the mainland's rise. Tsai has been trying to cut off economic ties with Beijing, and pressuring Taiwan businesses to shift their investments and production units from the mainland to either the island or any of the ASEAN member states by introducing a "new southbound policy".