The Chinese Communist Party is trying to take control of Taiwanese businesses in China and topple the government of Taiwan through political means. It is doing this by establishing party committees or chapter offices inside Taiwanese companies in China and by trying ensnare Taiwanese business leaders and officials. Even though Beijing's tyrannical rule will only lure the more fanatical unificationists among Taiwanese businessmen, everyone in Taiwan should be alert to the dangers posed by such efforts.
The problems facing Taiwanese businesses investing in China do not stop at party interference. Businesspeople also have to worry about their children's education, since they cannot choose teaching materials that meet Taiwan's standards. Reports say that educational authorities in Guangdong Province have forced schools for Taiwanese children to censor any mention of Taiwan's government. The chapters on history, geography and society in the books Knowing Taiwan, Citizen and morals, and Laws and political life are not even allowed into the classrooms.
When the children of Taiwanese businesspeople working in China return home, they will be seriously estranged from Taiwanese society. They will be strangers in their own land because of their lack of knowledge of life in Taiwan. Even worse, they may return infected by communist ideology and China's fanatic nationalism. Will they love Taiwan as their homeland or accept the pursuit of democracy and the rule by law or will they reject these values?
Let's say that the Chinese Communist Party succeeds in molding these children to the point that they are as ignorant of Taiwan and its society as the average party cadre. How would these children be able to put their knowledge to use in Taiwan? The communist policy of keeping people ignorant will only undermine the ability of these children to re-enter Taiwanese society. Perhaps businesspeople should think more about their families and less about making money when considering moving their businesses to China.
Taiwan's long experience with colonial regimes meant that the people learned to develop a mature political judgement early on, despite efforts by foreign rulers to hamper independent thought. Political means were used to prevent people in Taiwan from developing a sense of shared destiny based on a love of their land. The Japanese colonial government banned Taiwanese from studying politics, law or related courses. They also tried to kill the people's sense of national identity by "Japanizing" the society. When the KMT took over, it used White Terror tactics to maintain order, while propagating the "Chinese Cultural Revival Movement" (
China, increasingly fearful that Taiwan is slipping from its grasp, apparently hopes that a Trojan horse tactic -- controlling Taiwanese businesspeople by controlling their companies and influencing the education of their children -- will work where other strategies have failed. Businesspeople must recognize that there will be an incalculable cost for letting their children receive this kind of education and grow up in a system that pushes a "united front." They should ask themselves if they are really creating a better future for their children by pulling up their roots in Taiwan and planting them in China.
Monday was the 37th anniversary of former president Chiang Ching-kuo’s (蔣經國) death. Chiang — a son of former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), who had implemented party-state rule and martial law in Taiwan — has a complicated legacy. Whether one looks at his time in power in a positive or negative light depends very much on who they are, and what their relationship with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is. Although toward the end of his life Chiang Ching-kuo lifted martial law and steered Taiwan onto the path of democratization, these changes were forced upon him by internal and external pressures,
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) has caused havoc with his attempts to overturn the democratic and constitutional order in the legislature. If we look at this devolution from the context of a transition to democracy from authoritarianism in a culturally Chinese sense — that of zhonghua (中華) — then we are playing witness to a servile spirit from a millennia-old form of totalitarianism that is intent on damaging the nation’s hard-won democracy. This servile spirit is ingrained in Chinese culture. About a century ago, Chinese satirist and author Lu Xun (魯迅) saw through the servile nature of
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