Taiwan Affairs Office

History

In July 1954, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party decided to establish the Central Taiwan Affairs Group. The group and its office were established in 1955. The office was located in the Central Investigation Department, with Qi Yanming as its director, while Yang Yindong was responsible for specific work. During the later period of the Cultural Revolution, Yang concurrently served as the deputy director of the Office of the Central Taiwan Affairs Leading Group, and cooperated with central departments to participate in the amnesty of war criminals and armed agents in Taiwan, the cleanup of prisons, the lenient release of Kuomintang personnel above the county and regimental level, the implementation of the policy of surrendering and uprising personnel, and the handling of rightist work for a total of five years.

In December 1979, the Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs was reinstated. At the end of 1979, Deng Xiaoping personally presided over the work on Taiwan, and Deng Yingchao and Liao Chengzhi were put in charge of the Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs. The Office of the Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs was listed as a unit directly under the Central Committee, with Yang Yindong serving as deputy director. In the spring of 1982, he became director, ultimately leaving the office in September 1985. In November 1987, Taiwanese President Chiang Ching-kuo decided to open up visits to relatives in mainland China for veterans in Taiwan, thus opening up exchanges between Taiwanese residents and mainland Chinese residents that were stopped for decades. This led to the return of veterans of the Republic of China to their hometowns in mainland China, as well as the visits by Taiwanese residents to mainland China, cross-strait economic and trade exchanges and investments, marriage, property inheritance and other Taiwan-related affairs, leading the Office of the Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs to be no longer able to adapt to the new situation.

In 1988, the CCP Central Committee decided to entrust Vice Premier Wu Xueqian and Ding Guangen to organize a government Taiwan affairs work agency with administrative and management functions, leading to the formation of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council. On September 9, 1988, the executive meeting of the State Council decided to establish the office. In October 1988, Wu Xueqian, Ding Guangen, Li Qingzhou, Geng Wenqing, Tang Shube, and An Min met in Beidaihe. Wu Xueqian conveyed the decision of the Central Committee on the establishment of the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office and asked the participants to report on the situation, tasks and staffing of their respective departments’ Taiwan work. They also asked for opinions on the tasks, organizational structure, staffing and relationship with the existing Taiwan work departments of the central and state organs. On October 30, 1988, the General Office of the State Council issued a notice which stipulated that "the Taiwan Affairs Office is the agency of the State Council to handle Taiwan affairs" and appointed Ding Guangen as the director of the Taiwan Affairs Office, with Sun Xiaoyu and Chen Zonggao as deputy directors.

On May 31, 1989, the State Council appointed Tang Shubei as the deputy director of the Taiwan Affairs Office. At the time, the Taiwan Affairs Office had very few staff members, and was divided into five groups: the secretariat group, the research group, the liaison group, the economic group, and the exchange group. Sun Xiaoyu was in charge of the liaison group, Chen Zonggao was in charge of the secretariat group and the economic group, and Tang Shubei was in charge of the research group and the exchange group. Ding Guangen often convened these three deputy directors, and sometimes the heads of each group, to hold meetings in Ding Guangen's conference room. On January 18, 1990, deputy director Tang Shubei spoke to Xinhua News Agency reporters on the institutional functions of the Taiwan Affairs Office. Tang said that the Taiwan Affairs Office, "as the office of the State Council to handle Taiwan-related affairs", will "actively organize, guide, manage and coordinate the Taiwan-related work of the State Council departments, provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government, and promote the gradual easing of cross-strait relations and the further development of mutual exchanges". Among them, "organizing, guiding, managing and coordinating" is called the "eight-character policy" by the Taiwan Affairs Office system. This is the function approved by the Central Committee when Wu Xueqian and Ding Guangen created the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, which continues to this day.

On March 27, 1991, the Central Committee and the State Council decided to merge the former Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs and the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office to form the CCP Central Committee Taiwan Affairs Office. This office was also the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, which was one institution with two names and was listed as a direct institution of the Central Committee. The Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs was directly led by the CCP Politburo Standing Committee, and its daily work was undertaken by the Central Committee Taiwan Affairs Office. In this merger, with the approval of the Central Committee and the State Council, the Office of the Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs merged with the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office headed by Wang Zhaoguo. Wang Zhaoguo served as the director of both the Central Committee Taiwan Affairs Office and the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office. Under Wang Zhaoguo's efforts, the staff increased and 10 bureaus were established, which were later slightly adjusted.

From March 5 to 7, 1993, the second plenary session of the 14th CCP Central Committee was held in Beijing, and adopted the "Plan on the Reform of Party and Government Institutions". On July 2, 1993, the Central Committee issued the "Notice on Issuing the 'Plan for the Reform of Party and Government Institutions' and the 'Implementation Opinions on the Plan for the Reform of Party and Government Institutions'". Among the adjusted institutions directly under the CCP Central Committee as determined by the "Plan", the Taiwan Affairs Office of the Central Committee and the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council are one institution with two names and are included in the list of institutions directly under the CCP Central Committee. On June 24, 1993, the Central Committee decided to establish the Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs. The Taiwan Affairs Office of the Central Committee and the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council became the working bodies of the leading group.

In July 1999, the Taiwan Affairs Office established the Taiwan.cn news website. In 2007, the Taiwan Affairs Office established the (ATIEM), consisting of Taiwanese businesses operating in Mainland China. Prior to the 2012 Taiwanese legislative and presidential elections, ATIEM organized discounted flights to Taiwan for Taishang to vote in Taiwanese elections. In October 2025, Taiwan Affairs Office established a Facebook page where it issued bounties on key Taiwanese political figures. In the same month, it announced that it would start giving weekly press conferences from 25 October, doubling from the earlier biweekly schedule.

Functions

The office promotes Chinese unification and manages activities pertaining to the relationship across the Taiwan Strait and which may require interfacing with the government of Taiwan. These include: preparing for negotiations and agreements; direct mail, transport and trade links; propaganda and political influence work related to Taiwan; controlling and censoring media and public relations; handling major incidents; economic planning; intergovernmental exchanges and cooperation; personnel exchanges, observers and symposia; preparing meetings with Taiwanese politicians and officials; and work for international conferences involving Taiwan. It also manages a wide range of exchanges between mainland China and Taiwan in cultural, economic, and scholarly areas.

Organization

The State Council's Notice on the Establishment of Institutions states that the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council and the Taiwan Affairs Office of the CCP Central Committee are one institution with two names and are listed in the list of institutions directly under the CCP Central Committee. The office has the following organizations:

Internal organization

• Secretariat
• General Affairs Bureau
• Research Bureau]
• Government Information Office
• Economic Bureau
• Bureau of Taiwan Affairs of Hong Kong and Macao
• Exchange Bureau
• Liaison Office
• Legal Affairs Bureau
• Complaints Coordination Bureau
• Political Party Bureau
• Party Committee (Personnel Bureau)

Directly affiliated public institutions

• Government Service Center
• Information Center
• Cross-Strait Relations Research Center
• Cross-Strait Exchange Center
• Cross-Strait Economic and Technological Cooperation Center
• Jiuzhou Cultural Communication Center
• National Training Center for Taiwan Affairs Cadres

Directly affiliated enterprises

• Beijing Straits Cultural Exchange
• Jiuzhou Publishing

Social organizations

• Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits
• National Society of Taiwan Studies
• China Council for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification
• Cross-Strait Marriage and Family Association

List of directors

List of spokespersons

References

References

1. (2009-04-12). "杨荫东". 中国合阳.
2. (2014-03-28). "解析"领导小组":为何如此神秘 中央为何青睐?". 人民网.
3. 唐树备. "海峡两岸关系协会成立前后". 中共党史研究2017(4):72-87.
4. (2011-09-21). "国务院台湾事务办公室". 凤凰网.
5. (1988-10-30). "国务院办公厅关于成立国务院台湾事务办公室的通知（国办发〔1988〕71号）". 中国政府网.
6. (2012-03-23). "中共中央机构沿革概要". 中国机构编制网.
7. "国务院台湾事务办公室". 人民日报海外版2001年1月19日，第四版.
8. 刘璐. (2011). "网络传播中的大陆形象——以中国台湾网的内容分析为例". 中国网络传播研究.
9. Hsiao, Russell. (2023-04-19). "China Ramps Up Economic Coercion on Taiwan Ahead of 2024 Elections".
10. (2014-11-27). "How China's shadowy agency is working to absorb Taiwan". [[Reuters]].
11. Barss, Edward J.. (2022-02-06). "Chinese Election Interference in Taiwan". [[Routledge]].
12. (2025-10-23). "MAC warns against cooperating with TAO Facebook 'bounty' posts".
13. Wang, Amber. (2025-12-23). "‘Urgent’: has mainland China changed tone for Taiwan peaceful reunification?".
14. (January 2, 2024). "China calls on Taiwan's people to promote 'peaceful reunification'". [[Reuters]].
15. (25 Jun 2016). "China says has stopped communication mechanism with Taiwan". Reuters.
16. (4 October 2024). "Decoding Chinese Politics: Foreign Affairs".
17. "国务院关于机构设置的通知". 中华人民共和国国务院公报2013年第10号.
18. (2011-01-28). "内设机构". 中共中央台办、国务院台办.
19. (2011-01-09). "直属事业单位". 中共中央台办、国务院台办.
20. "财政部办公厅、中宣部文改办关于报送2018年中央文化企业改革发展情况报告的通知（财办文〔2019〕26号）附件2：文化企业名单". 中华人民共和国财政部.
21. (2024-12-18). "中央国家机关和地方2025年新闻发言人名录". State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China.
22. (2025-11-05). "相隔一周，国台办两位新发言人相继亮相". Shanghai Observer.