It is clear that the influence of the student-led Sunflower movement has spread to Macau and Hong Kong, and it is likely to spread to China sooner or later.
On May 25, more than 20,000 people in Macau gathered to protest a draft law that would offer generous retirement packages to its chief executive and key officials, and they threatened to block Macau’s Legislative Assembly the next day if the government did not withdraw the bill.
On June 6 and 13, the pro-Beijing camp on Hong Kong’s Legislative Council used its perpetual majority to pass the budget for an engineering project in the northeastern New Territories’ new development areas. Many social workers and other people protested by occupying the Legislative Council twice. Clearly, people in Hong Kong were inspired by the student-led protesters who occupied the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. Some observers have seen the Hong Kong occupations as a rehearsal for the upcoming Occupy Central campaign.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which faces both internal and external threats, has acted quickly to calm the situation. The CCP is particularly good at united-front work. It first tries to attract the majority and oppress the minority by taking advantage of any contradictions between them, and then defeats each in turn. Taking advantage of contradictions means dividing matters and forming policies to prevent opponents from working together.
Macau has been under the sway of the Chinese government since the 1960s, and its gambling sector has boomed since Portugal transferred sovereignty to China in 1999. In recent years, the Macau government has offered annual cash subsidies to all of its residents. Last year, 8,000 patacas (US$1,002) was given to permanent residents and 4,800 patacas to non-permanent residents. It was therefore a surprise that 20,000 of the region’s half-million population participated in the protest. Since the protesters’ demands did not amount to calls for democracy, Beijing decided on that very day to tell the Macau government to withdraw the draft bill, and this brought the protest to a close.
In Hong Kong, the Occupy Central campaign was first proposed in January last year, with some citizens calling for a genuine direct election of the chief executive, instead of a screened election implemented by the CCP under the mantra of “loving the motherland and Hong Kong.”
The CCP has made every effort to oppress the campaign in the media and has even threatened the use of the military. Hong Kong’s pan-democracy camp has also suffered internal disputes. As a result, the momentum of the campaign declined for a time. Now, however, Taiwan’s Sunflower movement has given Hong Kongers some much-needed encouragement.
The Occupy Central protest is scheduled for July 1. With the demonstration date drawing near, on June 10 China’s State Council released a white paper entitled The Practice of the One Country, Two Systems Policy in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The white paper asserts that the Chinese government has “overall jurisdiction” over Hong Kong.
If that is the case, the “high degree of autonomy” meant to cover all areas except defense and diplomatic affairs, as stated in Hong Kong’s Basic Law, no longer exists. This oppressive move against the territory has inspired citizens of Hong Kong to protest more actively, and on June 13 even more protesters broke into the Legislative Council than on the previous occasion. Regrettably, some pan-democrat legislators called the police to remove the protesters.
In Taiwan’s case, China is still adopting a dual strategy, because Taiwan is not yet in the same position as Hong Kong. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) is to visit Taiwan on June 25. This is a sensitive time for President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who is pushing for pro-China legislation to be approved in the extraordinary legislative session. The timing of the visit demonstrates that Beijing does not have a firm grasp on the situation in Taiwan, but it also shows that China can send officials to Taiwan whenever it likes.
Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) only visited two cities — Nanjing and Shanghai — during his trip to China in February, but Zhang is to visit four places in Taiwan. The lack of reciprocity is clear for all to see. Chinese officials visiting Taiwan can go all over the place, doing their united-front work face to face. Can the same be said of Taiwanese officials visiting China? Only Ma could let Taiwan’s sovereignty be dragged through the mud like this.
Although Zhang is scheduled to meet with some of Taiwan’s pan-green politicians, behind his smile lies the intent of sowing dissent and division. For example, he might offer Greater Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) some favors in an attempt to sow discord between her and Greater Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德). The pan-green camp needs to be especially alert about this. In the face of the CCP’s united-front work, the pan-green camp should adopt a dual strategy of profiting from cross-strait deals while still standing firm against the CCP.
Only by upholding Taiwanese values will it be able to effectively counter China’s united-front strategy.
Paul Lin is a political commentator.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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