The Taiwan Statebuilding Party yesterday warned the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be on guard against Chinese infiltration of Taiwan at the grassroots level, citing a complaint about the business card of Pingtung County’s Hengchun Township (恆春) Mayor Lu Yu-tung (盧玉棟) as an example.
Party Chairman Chen Yi-chi (陳奕齊) said that he received the complaint from a Taiwanese expatriate who attended a sister city event between Hengchung and Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, in Miami on Wednesday.
The business card Lu handed out at the event featured five stars that greatly resembled those found on the Chinese national flag, Chen cited the expatriate as saying.
Photo: Taipei Times
He quoted the expatriate as saying: “I almost thought that I was attending an event by Chinese Hengchun.”
Lu was attending an official event and meeting with the mayor of Sunny Isles Beach, Chen said, adding that the business card is proof that China has already succeeded in infiltrating Taiwan from the bottom up.
China is attempting to use low-level Taiwanese officials to propagate the illusion that China rules Taiwan, he said.
“When foreigners take that business card, Taiwan has already become an inseparable part of China,” Chen said.
The Hengchun Township Office said that Lu is overseas and unavailable for comment, but added that the five stars on his business card are green, not red.
The word chun (春) is printed in the middle of the largest star, the office said, adding that the expatriate might have misread it, as it was printed in artistic form.
The issue was raised four years ago when Lu was campaigning for mayor, the office said.
At the time, Lu said that the five stars on his business card represented “five-star service,” not China, adding that the design also put Chinese visitors at ease and makes them feel “comfortable.”
If Chinese tourists stop visiting Hengchun, the local hotel industry could be in serious trouble, he said, adding that the township had few other work opportunities.
However, some residents have said that Chinese are not the only visitors to Hengchun and that efforts to make them feel at ease should not necessitate turning it into a “communist town,” while others have said that they feel there is nothing wrong with the business card design.
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