TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) on Sunday (Sept. 4) issued a press release condemning China Times for publishing an opinion piece titled, “Guatemala, offending the U.S., China, and Russia at the same time.”
The piece was written by Timothy Kwai (季霆剛), a Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies member, an adjunct researcher at Shenzhen University, and a former part-time Central Policy Unit advisor. In the article he submitted to China Times, he insinuated that Taiwan is buying friendship from Guatemala despite its “unstable” relationship with the U.S.
Kwai also claimed that Guatemala’s position in the international political world is “limited to a small space, with no way ahead, precarious” — terms that echo China’s description of Taiwan when it tries to degrade the country’s status and promote propaganda. The article also ended with a criticism of Taiwan’s pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, a note similar to any official statement China makes on Taiwan, and accuses it of “monopolizing power.”
In response, MOFA emphasized Guatemala’s friendship with Taiwan is built on shared values, quoting the country’s Foreign Minister Mario Bucaro as saying, “Taiwan-Guatemalan relations will not be shaken because it is built upon generations of friendship.” MOFA wrote that it is deeply upset over the China Times article, which presented statements that “smeared an ally’s support of Taiwan.”
“MOFA cannot accept at all that certain domestic pro-China media is using the issue of Taiwan’s partnership with an ally and went so far as to publish a cognitive warfare article in full written by a member of an organization under the Chinese State Council’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office,” the ministry added. It accused the article of malicious political manipulation and disinformation that attempted to sabotage the public’s trust in the government.
“Aside from expressing stern condemnation, MOFA once again calls for the public and media to see through the authoritarian Chinese Communist Party-run government’s manipulation and not continue to act as its tool in its cognitive warfare against Taiwan and a medium for spreading propaganda,” MOFA wrote.
