China’s bid to leech talent
Beijing Institute of Technology’s Zhuhai Campus in Guangdong Province is trying to recruit 100 Taiwanese professors. Of course, talented people should be internationally mobile, but China is specifically targeting Taiwan, which makes one feel that “things are not that simple.”
Technical know-how is a matter that has implications for national security, and these professors have a good understanding of Taiwanese industries and technologies, which makes them important to national defense. When the Zhuhai Campus restricts its recruiting activities to Taiwanese technical talent, they are violating the principles of international mobility. University professors are specialists with doctoral degrees and looking for talent from around the world is the more enlightened approach. The problem is not that Taiwan lacks talented people, but that China’s “care and concern” for Taiwan makes one wonder whether there are ulterior motives behind this move.
China has an overall strategy for dealing with Taiwan, and it will not engage in all-out war or guerrilla warfare, so when it is looking to recruit Taiwanese university professors, they probably also has an overall plan for that. Studying technology is a practical and pragmatic matter and such students pay little attention to politics and ideology. As such, they will have less of an impact on Chinese campuses, and since they do not discuss politics and other such issues, they will also have less of the political impact that China fears so much.
We must not ignore China’s attempt to recruit Taiwanese professors, and we should come up with our own response. This is not “a good thing” as Minister of Education Wu Se-hwa (吳思華) said. It is far from that simple.
Chen Chi-nung
Nantou
Eric Chu is unreliable
The editorial “More empty promises from Eric Chu” (Jan. 10, page 8) strongly validates the public’s impression that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫) is an untrustworthy politician. Political commentator Hu Chung-hsin (胡忠信) calls Chu a man without sincerity or creditability.
Chu’s low approval ratings as New Taipei City mayor and KMT chairman are very similar to those of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
Ma repeatedly refused to run for Taipei mayor, but finally agreed to run when he was drafted as a “new Taiwanese” by then-president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝). Likewise, for several months Chu pretended he did not want to run for president. He managed to prevent others from running and got rid of Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱). Chu jumped into the race himself, using the make-believe slogan of “One Taiwan.” Chu deserves the title of “Ma minus-2.0” instead of “Ma 2.0.”
Chu thinks he is good at stabilizing Taiwan and improving the economy. These are empty promises. Taiwan feels threatened and the KMT has to hide Republic of China flags whenever Chinese officials visit the nation. Taiwan is even less stable after Chu and Ma both voluntarily degraded the so-called “1992 consensus” to “one China.” This is a unilateral change of the “status quo” by the KMT without the consent of Taiwanese.
Chu is good at accounting — not necessarily at the national economy. If Taiwan leans to far toward China in economic terms, the average salary of Taiwanese will drop below its current 16-year low. It is a shame that Taiwan has changed from a technical and financial service provider to China to an economic and political dependent.
According to a Japanese economist, the Chinese economy has slowed because of the heavy burden imposed by excessive spending on infrastructure projects, debt, over-employment, and being committed to too many “friendship projects” in Africa and other parts of the world. China is becoming “a country that is getting old before it gets rich.”
At a campaign march on Saturday, the KMT unveiled heart-shaped balloons that read: “I love Taiwan.” To prevent these balloons from bursting, the KMT should not push Taiwan into a deeper valley — politically and economically before power is transferred to the Democratic Progressive Party.
Charles Hong
Columbus, Ohio
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