Four Chinese banks that issue offshore yuan bonds in Taiwan placed large, front-page advertisements in several newspapers belonging to the China Times (中國時報) and United Daily News (聯合報) groups. These eye-catching ads used the term “on the island,” implying that the nation is a province of China.
Although economic and social cross-strait relations are growing stronger, many people are likely to take offense to such a blatant reference to the unification-independence issue.
They may be disgruntled, but what can they do? The government’s pro-Beijing stance has created a heavy economic reliance on China, which is almost Taiwan’s biggest trading partner, thus making the nation vulnerable to economic colonization.
China is making good use of its economic and political resources as it expands its influence over different sectors of society and gradually turns Taiwanese dependence into a bargaining chip, which it will use to control “the island” to achieve its goal of forcing political talks.
During last year’s presidential election campaign, Beijing used Taiwanese businesspeople based in China to threaten voters, which resulted in former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) loss to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), despite his lackluster performance.
The government has given up on the pro-US policies of the past in favor of China, and many of its decisions are made to please Beijing in the hope that it will repay the government economically and at the ballot box.
When sovereignty claims clash, the Ma administration is afraid of opposing China and of offending Taiwanese, and so it becomes paralyzed. This is what happened when China announced its air defense identification zone last month. The government’s reaction was delayed because it did not have the slightest understanding of the impact that the announcement would have on the nation’s sovereignty and regional security. This shows how much Ma leans toward Beijing.
To understand how China’s unification policy will work, consider how Beijing forced Hong Kong to surrender.
The manipulation of Taiwanese businesspeople in China was the first step in its plan. By using Chinese market opportunities as bait and holding Taiwanese businesspeople hostage to their investments in China, Beijing has them in a stranglehold that allows it to force companies to express support for China or to keep their mouths shut.
The second step is to co-opt politicians. The pan-blue camp is looking for opportunities to go to China for networking purposes. A look at how politicians fought to meet with Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits Chairman Chen Deming (陳德銘) and to be invited to banquets with him during his recent visit showed how “red” the political stage is becoming.
The third step is to use China’s huge domestic market to bait the media into becoming more pro-Chinese. A good example is how China is using soap operas to entice the pro-green TV station SET TV and how it is trying to get a hold on media outlets by buying advertising space. This approach is gradually silencing critical voices and luring them toward the Chinese market.
The advertisements for Taiwanese bonds were a testing of the waters. They straddled the line between law and politics, and if politicians, the media and the public do not protest, there will be more advertisements and other activities that continue to push the boundaries.
If Taiwanese see this as normal behavior and get used to China’s influence, it will just be a matter of time before the nation becomes part of China.
Two sets of economic data released last week by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) have drawn mixed reactions from the public: One on the nation’s economic performance in the first quarter of the year and the other on Taiwan’s household wealth distribution in 2021. GDP growth for the first quarter was faster than expected, at 6.51 percent year-on-year, an acceleration from the previous quarter’s 4.93 percent and higher than the agency’s February estimate of 5.92 percent. It was also the highest growth since the second quarter of 2021, when the economy expanded 8.07 percent, DGBAS data showed. The growth
In the intricate ballet of geopolitics, names signify more than mere identification: They embody history, culture and sovereignty. The recent decision by China to refer to Arunachal Pradesh as “Tsang Nan” or South Tibet, and to rename Tibet as “Xizang,” is a strategic move that extends beyond cartography into the realm of diplomatic signaling. This op-ed explores the implications of these actions and India’s potential response. Names are potent symbols in international relations, encapsulating the essence of a nation’s stance on territorial disputes. China’s choice to rename regions within Indian territory is not merely a linguistic exercise, but a symbolic assertion
More than seven months into the armed conflict in Gaza, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to take “immediate and effective measures” to protect Palestinians in Gaza from the risk of genocide following a case brought by South Africa regarding Israel’s breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention. The international community, including Amnesty International, called for an immediate ceasefire by all parties to prevent further loss of civilian lives and to ensure access to life-saving aid. Several protests have been organized around the world, including at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and many other universities in the US.
Every day since Oct. 7 last year, the world has watched an unprecedented wave of violence rain down on Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories — more than 200 days of constant suffering and death in Gaza with just a seven-day pause. Many of us in the American expatriate community in Taiwan have been watching this tragedy unfold in horror. We know we are implicated with every US-made “dumb” bomb dropped on a civilian target and by the diplomatic cover our government gives to the Israeli government, which has only gotten more extreme with such impunity. Meantime, multicultural coalitions of US