China, which makes no secret that its ultimate goal is to annex Taiwan, has of late made engaging young Taiwanese a top priority in its “united front” strategy against Taiwan.
At the two-day “2015 Workshop on Taiwan Affairs” in Beijing that concluded on Tuesday, in addition to affirming the so-called “1992 consensus” and an anti-Taiwanese independence stance, officials made a point of stressing that measures would be taken to “actively promote cross-strait visits and expand exchanges among young people and members of the general public on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.”
The tone echoed the statement by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Minister Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) last summer that Beijing wishes “to hear what Taiwanese people have to say,” in particular those Beijing has dubbed the “three middles and the youth” — residents of central and southern Taiwan; middle and low-income families; small and medium-sized enterprises; and young people.
In line with this so-called “three middles and the youth” policy, one may also recall that during China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits Chairman Chen Deming’s (陳德銘) visit to Taiwan last month, he emphasized that he wishes to promote more exchanges between young volunteers on both sides of the Strait.
China’s latest emphasis on engaging young Taiwanese came after witnessing the impact of the Sunflower movement in March and April last year, during which many of the young people who participated in the protests expressed concerns about finding decent jobs and anxiety over their futures being increasingly dictated by China.
Aside from repeating the same old rhetoric stressing the importance of “developing mutual trust” and that both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to the Zhonghua minzu (Chinese ethnic group, 中華民族), it appears that Beijing is also employing economic means in its attempts to woo the hearts and minds of young Taiwanese.
And all these attempts are obvious.
Other than the ongoing offering of various kinds of attractive scholarships to lure elite Taiwanese senior high-school students to the other side of the Strait, founder of the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Jack Ma (馬雲) has also been seen of late touting to a Taiwanese audience, particularly the younger generation, the job opportunities in the Chinese market.
It is worth noting that former Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Taipei mayoral candidate Sean Lien (連勝文) also sang a similar tune last week, appealing to young Taiwanese to look to the other side of the Strait for more employment opportunities.
All these moves are not without their lure.
After all, there is no question that Taiwan is faced with high youth unemployment.
According to the latest information from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, people aged 15 to 24 had the highest unemployment rate at 12.79 percent, compared with 4.02 percent for the 25-to-44 age group and 2.04 percent for the 45-to-64 age group.
Media reports are full of young Taiwanese either lamenting the notorious “22K curse” — which refers to the NT$22,000 average starting salary for university graduates — or having to seeking entry-level employment overseas.
No one is against cross-strait exchanges among young people, because a healthy exchange promotes understanding of each other and helps improve competitiveness in the international community.
However, young Taiwanese must be vigilant if behind China’s so-called cultural exchanges and rosy pictures of the business opportunities it can offer them lies a malicious political ambition.
The Executive Yuan recently revised a page of its Web site on ethnic groups in Taiwan, replacing the term “Han” (漢族) with “the rest of the population.” The page, which was updated on March 24, describes the composition of Taiwan’s registered households as indigenous (2.5 percent), foreign origin (1.2 percent) and the rest of the population (96.2 percent). The change was picked up by a social media user and amplified by local media, sparking heated discussion over the weekend. The pan-blue and pro-China camp called it a politically motivated desinicization attempt to obscure the Han Chinese ethnicity of most Taiwanese.
On Wednesday last week, the Rossiyskaya Gazeta published an article by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) asserting the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) territorial claim over Taiwan effective 1945, predicated upon instruments such as the 1943 Cairo Declaration and the 1945 Potsdam Proclamation. The article further contended that this de jure and de facto status was subsequently reaffirmed by UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 of 1971. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs promptly issued a statement categorically repudiating these assertions. In addition to the reasons put forward by the ministry, I believe that China’s assertions are open to questions in international
The Legislative Yuan passed an amendment on Friday last week to add four national holidays and make Workers’ Day a national holiday for all sectors — a move referred to as “four plus one.” The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who used their combined legislative majority to push the bill through its third reading, claim the holidays were chosen based on their inherent significance and social relevance. However, in passing the amendment, they have stuck to the traditional mindset of taking a holiday just for the sake of it, failing to make good use of
As strategic tensions escalate across the vast Indo-Pacific region, Taiwan has emerged as more than a potential flashpoint. It is the fulcrum upon which the credibility of the evolving American-led strategy of integrated deterrence now rests. How the US and regional powers like Japan respond to Taiwan’s defense, and how credible the deterrent against Chinese aggression proves to be, will profoundly shape the Indo-Pacific security architecture for years to come. A successful defense of Taiwan through strengthened deterrence in the Indo-Pacific would enhance the credibility of the US-led alliance system and underpin America’s global preeminence, while a failure of integrated deterrence would
RSS