China used to call the investments and marketing activities of multinational corporations in other nations an “economic invasion.” However, the real economic invasion is the current international expansion of Chinese corporations, with the Chinese government pulling the strings behind private businesses.
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd chairman Jack Ma’s (馬雲) recent acquisition of Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd is considered by some to be an attempt to help Beijing improve its image.
When China employs this tactic against Taiwan, it is working toward annexation. It has long been China’s understanding that buyiing off Taiwan is less costly than an all-out military offensive.
For the past seven years, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has made a complete mess of the economy. He has used the capital gains tax to destroy the stock market, causing an outflow of Taiwanese capital and keeping the market’s price-earnings ratio low, thus making it convenient for China to acquire vital Taiwanese industries.
There is reason to question whether Ma is collaborating with Beijing.
Chinese company Tsinghua Unigroup Inc’s bid to take stahes in Siliconware Precision Industries Co and MediaTek Inc — the threat to ban imports of MediaTek products into China says it all — and Minister of Economic Affairs John Deng’s (鄧振中) comments on deregulating Chinese acquisitions seem to reflect what Ma has in mind.
The Chinese acquisition campaign could seriously affect Taiwan’s national security, but Ma has not said anything about that, which also says something.
Having discovered the intent behind the Chinese acquisitions, the US, South Korea and Australia have taken measures to restrain such investments. However, Taiwan, which has long been the prey of the Chinese, finds its government willingly opening its doors to welcome the predator.
Taiwanese must keep an eye on a traitorous government like this.
China stops at nothing in its invasive foreign economic expansion, as evidenced by Indonesia’s choice for its high-speed rail project. Since 2008, Japan had been in talks with Indonesia on building a high-speed rail line connecting Jakarta and Bandung, and had begun comprehensive preparations for the preliminary engineering and submitted a geological map. In early September this year, the Indonesian government rejected China’s bid, which was submitted only half a year ago. However, after Beijing treated several Indonesian officials to a trip to China, it was awarded the project later that month, despite not having made any preparations for preliminary engineering.
Some Japanese media outlets speculated that Beijing had bribed the Indonesian officials to hand the Japanese studies to China. In return, China would not require the Indonesian government to offer any debt guarantees. It would be a deal between the two nations’ private sectors, which means that if in the future the Indonesian company defaults on its payments, China would have a hard time holding Indonesia accountable.
Is an engineering project like this viable or is there a risk that it will be left unfinished?
Tsinghua Unigroup, which aims to grab control of Taiwan’s core industry, is a corporation under China’s Tsinghua Holdings, and Hu Haifeng (胡海峰), the son of former Chinese president Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), was secretary of Tsinghua Holdings’ branch of the Chinese Communist Party.
In 2009, Tsinghua Tongfang Co, a major Chinese computer maker, was placed under investigation for alleged fraud and bribery in Namibia. Two Namibians and one Chinese were arrested in the African nation, and Hu Haifeng was to be investigated as a witness, prompting his dismissal by Tsinghua.
Ma administration officials and some Taiwanese businesspeople have a tendency to shake in their boots when they have to deal with China. Do they have the nerve to stop the Chinese economic invasion?
Even if Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co puts in a considerable effort to prepare to invest in Nanjing, will the company be able to hold its ground when the Chinese government makes threats by arresting its senior managers, as it did years ago to Chimei Innolux Corp, Taiwan’s largest LCD panel maker?
If Ma abruptly decides to sell Taiwan out to China so that China will care for him after he retires from his presidency, Taiwanese must take immediate action to stop him.
Slacking off now could result in regrets that could last for centuries.
Paul Lin is a political commentator.
Translated by Ethan Zhan
George Santayana wrote: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This article will help readers avoid repeating mistakes by examining four examples from the civil war between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) forces and the Republic of China (ROC) forces that involved two city sieges and two island invasions. The city sieges compared are Changchun (May to October 1948) and Beiping (November 1948 to January 1949, renamed Beijing after its capture), and attempts to invade Kinmen (October 1949) and Hainan (April 1950). Comparing and contrasting these examples, we can learn how Taiwan may prevent a war with
A recent trio of opinion articles in this newspaper reflects the growing anxiety surrounding Washington’s reported request for Taiwan to shift up to 50 percent of its semiconductor production abroad — a process likely to take 10 years, even under the most serious and coordinated effort. Simon H. Tang (湯先鈍) issued a sharp warning (“US trade threatens silicon shield,” Oct. 4, page 8), calling the move a threat to Taiwan’s “silicon shield,” which he argues deters aggression by making Taiwan indispensable. On the same day, Hsiao Hsi-huei (蕭錫惠) (“Responding to US semiconductor policy shift,” Oct. 4, page 8) focused on
Taiwan is rapidly accelerating toward becoming a “super-aged society” — moving at one of the fastest rates globally — with the proportion of elderly people in the population sharply rising. While the demographic shift of “fewer births than deaths” is no longer an anomaly, the nation’s legal framework and social customs appear stuck in the last century. Without adjustments, incidents like last month’s viral kicking incident on the Taipei MRT involving a 73-year-old woman would continue to proliferate, sowing seeds of generational distrust and conflict. The Senior Citizens Welfare Act (老人福利法), originally enacted in 1980 and revised multiple times, positions older
Nvidia Corp’s plan to build its new headquarters at the Beitou Shilin Science Park’s T17 and T18 plots has stalled over a land rights dispute, prompting the Taipei City Government to propose the T12 plot as an alternative. The city government has also increased pressure on Shin Kong Life Insurance Co, which holds the development rights for the T17 and T18 plots. The proposal is the latest by the city government over the past few months — and part of an ongoing negotiation strategy between the two sides. Whether Shin Kong Life Insurance backs down might be the key factor
RSS