A Taiwanese non-governmental organization (NGO) that promotes engagement with China has called off its push for a referendum on whether to set up a free-trade zone allowing unfettered Chinese investment, its founder said, amid growing anti-China sentiment in Taiwan.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on Nov. 7 met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Singapore in the first meeting between leaders of both sides of the Taiwan Strait since the Chinese Civil War ended in 1949.
Some observers saw the meetings as a step toward improving ties, others as a polarization of positions weeks before Taiwan holds presidential and legislative elections, in which the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is expected to be trounced.
Taiwan Glory founder Loh Hong-bing (駱宏賓) wants to set up a free-trade zone on the outlying island of Kinmen, once the front line between the diplomatic foes and just a half-hour ferry ride from China.
“Nothing, absolutely nothing, can get done since the student movement last year,” Loh said, referring to the Sunflower movement protests led by younger generations over the government’s handling of a proposed trade pact between the two sides.
“We are giving up on our referendum proposal,” Loh told reporters.
“The Kinmen government has set up obstacles to stop it from happening,” he added.
The decision to shelve the vote, which was to be held just on Kinmen, was made weeks ago, but has not been made public until now.
The Kinmen government had delayed holding a meeting of councilors and local heavyweights required to consider the referendum proposal, he said.
“The Kinmen government has not held such a meeting,” he said. “It is a soft signal saying: ‘No’ to the proposal.”
Kinmen County Commissioner Chen Fu-hai (陳福海) was hopeful the free-trade zone would happen eventually, but said a referendum was inappropriate given anti-China sentiment.
Taiwan is to hold presidential and legislative elections on Jan. 16, when the KMT is expected to be beaten by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which has traditionally favored an independent Taiwan.
China has not renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control, and steel and concrete anti-landing defenses still scar the beaches of Kinmen.
Kaohsiung-based Taiwan Glory is a part of China Glory, an NGO that said its goal is to help the poor, according to two senior Taiwan Glory officials.
China Glory is, in turn, controlled by China’s United Front Work Department, an organ of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee tasked with unifying China and Taiwan, according to official documents reviewed by reporters and sources.
Xi told Ma when they met that Beijing would never accept Taiwan’s independence, raising questions about how Beijing would deal with the DPP if it comes to power.
“No force can pull us apart, because we are brothers who are still connected by our flesh, even if our bones are broken,” Xi said. “We are a family in which blood is thicker than water.”
DPP presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) a day after the Ma-Xi talks said that only the people of Taiwan can decide its future. Beijing takes this stance to mean it wants independence.
When asked by reporters whether Taiwan-China ties would deteriorate if the DPP were to win the presidential race, an official at the news department of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said: “This is a theoretical question and we cannot answer it.”
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