A Taipei city councillor has revealed that a group renting space at the Confucius Temple used it to film pro-unification promotional content, and Taiwan's government has pushed back hard.

• A hanfu culture group rented a hall at the Taipei Confucius Temple for a modest monthly fee, saying it wanted to promote Confucian and traditional dress culture.
• It instead filmed "cross-strait" promotional videos there, and footage of members visiting China aired on a Chinese state broadcaster in Xiamen.
• Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council said culture should stay neutral and warned it will hit back at any attempt by Beijing to turn culture into a political tool.
• The real gap between Taiwan and China is the political system, not language or culture, the council said, leaving little room for talks while Beijing stays authoritarian.
• Taipei's civil affairs department admitted it did not know about the group's close China ties beforehand and has promised a full investigation.

Outlook: Expect tighter checks on who rents public cultural sites in Taipei, with another event by the same group planned for November now under scrutiny.