coast guard patrols<\/a> around Taiwan-controlled islands next to China.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe new guidelines say China\u2019s courts, prosecutors, public and state security bodies should \u201cseverely punish Taiwan independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession crimes in accordance with the law, and resolutely defend national sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity,\u201d according to China\u2019s state-run Xinhua news agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The guidelines are being issued in accordance with laws already on the books, including the 2005 anti-secession law, Xinhua said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That law gives China the legal basis for military action against Taiwan if it secedes or seems about to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sun Ping, an official from China\u2019s Ministry of Public Security, told reporters in Beijing the maximum penalty for the \u201ccrime of secession\u201d was the death penalty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe sharp sword of legal action will always hang high,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was no immediate response from Taiwan\u2019s government. One official told Reuters they were still digesting the contents of the new guidelines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The guidelines detail what is considered a crime worthy of punishment, including promoting Taiwan\u2019s entry to international organizations where statehood is a condition, having \u201cexternal official exchanges\u201d and \u201csuppressing\u201d parties, groups and people that promote \u201creunification.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The guidelines add a further clause to what could be considered a crime \u2013 \u201cother acts that seek to separate Taiwan from China\u201d \u2013 meaning the rules can be broadly interpreted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lai has repeatedly offered to hold talks with China but has been rebuffed. He says only Taiwan\u2019s people can decide their future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
China has taken legal measures against Taiwanese officials before, including imposing sanctions on Hsiao Bi-khim, Taiwan\u2019s former de facto ambassador to the United States and now the island\u2019s vice president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Such punishments have little practical effect as Chinese courts do not have jurisdiction in Taiwan, whose government rejects Beijing\u2019s sovereignty claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senior Taiwanese officials, including its president, also do not visit China.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CNN: China, which views Taiwan as its own territory, has made no secret of its dislike of President Lai Ching-te who took office last month, saying he is a \u201cseparatist,\u201d and staged war games shortly after his inauguration. China on Friday threatened to impose the death penalty in extreme cases for \u201cdiehard\u201d Taiwan independence separatists, a ratcheting up of pressure even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction on the democratically governed island. Taiwan has complained of a pattern of ramped up Chinese pressure since Lai won the election in January, including ongoing military actions, trade sanctions and coast guard patrols around Taiwan-controlled islands next to China. The new guidelines say China\u2019s courts, prosecutors,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40144,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40143"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40145,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40143\/revisions\/40145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}