China's government has imposed sanctions on seven Taiwanese officials who support the island's independence, China's official Xinhua News Agency reported today.
The sanctions follow US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taipei this month, a move Beijing says sent the wrong message to pro-independence forces in Taiwan, which China considers a renegade province. reunite with the mainland in the future, by force if necessary.
Authorities in Taiwan, which has its own government, reject the Chinese position.
Among those sanctioned by China's Taiwan affairs agency, according to New China, are Hsiao Bi-him, the island's de facto ambassador to Washington, and Wellington Ku, the secretary-general of the National Security Council in Taipei .
Politicians from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPK) are also in Beijing's sights.
A spokesman for the agency said the sanctioned individuals — described as "hard-line separatists" — would not be allowed to visit mainland China and the Hong Kong and Macau autonomous regions, while companies and investors associated with them would not be allowed to they collect profits in China.
The seven individuals sanctioned are in addition to Premier Su Cheng-chang, Foreign Minister Joseph Wu and National Assembly Speaker Yu Shi-kun, who have already been sanctioned.
Source: RES-EAP