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China harassed Chen supporters: SEF

Beijing systematically harassed China-based Taiwanese business-people who openly supported the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in the 2000 presidential election, a government official said yesterday.

The persecution, which occurred in varying degrees, was widespread among Taiwanese businesspeople who showed they favored President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), according to Yen Wan-ching (顏萬進), deputy secretary-general of the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF).

The semi-official foundation deals with cross-strait affairs and serves mainly China-based Tai-wanese businessmen.

Hsu Wen-lung (許文龍), chairman of the Chi Mei Cooperation, was one of the prominent victims of Chinese mistreatment, Yen said in a seminar hosted by the Institute for National Policy Research. The seminar was held to discuss the "China factor" in the coming presidential election.

"China tried to find fault with accounting and environmental management in our factory in Jiangsu Province after the 2000 election," said one unnamed official yesterday.

Yen said after the 2000 election, the foundation received numerous complaints from Taiwanesebusinesspeople about China's "unusual treatment."

Chinese officials surprised businesspeople by performing unannounced visits to check their accounting. Their products also underwent unusually strict customs checks and Chinese officials also harassed their workers, Yen said.

"Superficially, China's behavior seemed unrelated to politics. But later we found all these harassed businesspeople had one thing in common: they had all openly showed their support for Chen," Yen said.

Declining to reveal further details about the businesspeople's identities or the cities in which they were based, Yen said these people did not want their stories to be exposed.

"China's behavior made these businesspeople's lives very difficult. They wanted to do business in China. They wanted to make a living. But they had no channel to seek justice because China is not much of a law-abiding society," Yen said.

Several business leaders based in southern China, however, said they knew nothing about the situation revealed by Yen.

"Nobody around me has encountered anything like that," one said.

Yen said the mistreatment four years ago has made DPP backers among China-based businesspeople afraid of revealing their true political orientation.

"In China, everybody knows DPP supporters keep mum about their political stance," he said.

Those who favor the blue-camp alliance formed by Chinese Nationalist Party Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) do not have the same cause for concern as DPP backers, Yen added.

Supporters of the China-friendly blue camp can voice their political tendencies because "they don't need to worry about China's reaction," Yen said.

Academia Sinica research fellow Joanne Chang (裘兆琳), another speaker in the seminar, said thousands of overseas Taiwanese in the US have also been planning to return to Taiwan to cast their ballots in the election.

Having just returned from the US, Chang said despite the participation of China-based Taiwanese businesspeople and overseas Taiwanese from other countries, the outcome of the election is likely to be dominated by "the mainstream opinion of the people."
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