An influential Chinese academic’s proposal to penalize Taiwanese businesspeople in China for supporting Taiwanese independence or the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has raised alarm in cross-strait circles, commentators said.
At a joint meeting of the Chinese National People’s Congress and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, Peking University’s institute of Taiwan studies head Li Yihu (李義虎) said China should punish “two-faced Taiwanese businesspeople” for activities or statements supporting the DPP.
This would be accomplished by establishing “a reward-and-punishment mechanism” that would track the statements and actions of Taiwanese businesspeople in China and rate them accordingly, he said.
Li is considered a bellwether figure for Beijing’s policy toward Taiwan due to his status in Chinese academia and contacts within the Chinese government.
A person with knowledge of cross-strait relations who wished to remain anonymous said Li’s remarks were like a “red terror” that would be counter-productive to the development of cross-strait ties.
The DPP enjoys a huge majorities in the executive, legislative and local levels of government, the source said, adding that Taiwanese businesspeople, commercial associations and other entities could hardly expect to distance themselves from the DPP.
Corporate figures must engage in dialogue with the government, offer policy input and inform the administration on economic sentiment, the source said.
“Would [Beijing] consider those exchanges pro-Taiwanese independence?” the source added.
Beijing has been pushing for greater cultural exchanges between Taiwanese and Chinese young people, and the joint meeting in which Li spoke had exchanges between young people on its agenda, while the Taiwan Affairs Office began establishing business start-up platforms for Taiwanese and Chinese young people, the source said.
Li’s proposed “political censorship” of Taiwanese businesspeople is likely to engender a negative perception of China and prove counterproductive to the success of the programs, the source said.
CHAMPIONS: President Lai congratulated the players’ outstanding performance, cheering them for marking a new milestone in the nation’s baseball history Taiwan on Sunday won their first Little League Baseball World Series (LLBWS) title in 29 years, as Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School defeated a team from Las Vegas 7-0 in the championship game in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was Taiwan’s first championship in the annual tournament since 1996, ending a nearly three-decade drought. “It has been a very long time ... and we finally made it,” Taiwan manager Lai Min-nan (賴敏男) said after the game. Lai said he last managed a Dong Yuan team in at the South Williamsport in 2015, when they were eliminated after four games. “There is
POWER PLANT POLL: The TPP said the number of ‘yes’ votes showed that the energy policy should be corrected, and the KMT said the result was a win for the people’s voice The government does not rule out advanced nuclear energy generation if it meets the government’s three prerequisites, President William Lai (賴清德) said last night after the number of votes in favor of restarting a nuclear power plant outnumbered the “no” votes in a referendum yesterday. The referendum failed to pass, despite getting more “yes” votes, as the Referendum Act (公民投票法) states that the vote would only pass if the votes in favor account for more than one-fourth of the total number of eligible voters and outnumber the opposing votes. Yesterday’s referendum question was: “Do you agree that the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to start construction of its 1.4-nanometer chip manufacturing facilities at the Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP, 中部科學園區) as early as October, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported yesterday, citing the park administration. TSMC acquired land for the second phase of the park’s expansion in Taichung in June. Large cement, construction and facility engineering companies in central Taiwan have reportedly been receiving bids for TSMC-related projects, the report said. Supply-chain firms estimated that the business opportunities for engineering, equipment and materials supply, and back-end packaging and testing could reach as high as
Democratic nations should refrain from attending China’s upcoming large-scale military parade, which Beijing could use to sow discord among democracies, Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Shen You-chung (沈有忠) said. China is scheduled to stage the parade on Wednesday next week to mark the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II. The event is expected to mobilize tens of thousands of participants and prominently showcase China’s military hardware. Speaking at a symposium in Taichung on Thursday, Shen said that Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) recently met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a visit to New Delhi.
RSS