Sun, Mar 12, 2023 page8

• Taiwanese youth are caught in the middle

  • By James Wang 王景弘
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  Would you prefer admission to China’s Peking University or going to war? This is the carrot-and-stick approach the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) are taking. The CCP is luring Taiwanese students with university admission, while the KMT is threatening them with the churn of war. The two parties’ shared goal is to force Taiwan to “unify” with China.

  China recently announced “preferential treatment” for Taiwanese students to study there, listing more than 400 colleges and universities that they can apply to based on General Scholastic Ability Test (GSAT) scores in Taiwan.

  In reality, Taiwanese students are only interested in a few prestigious Chinese schools such as Peking University and Tsinghua University. Outstanding students with high GSAT scores have a wide range of choices open to them. There could be little incentive for them to go to China for higher education.

  China’s relations with the US and European countries have declined in recent years, and Chinese students falsifying academic records or performing poorly abroad are not unheard of. Like Beijing’s notorious Confucius Institutes, many Chinese educational institutions have become conduits through which to infiltrate other countries.

  Meanwhile, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the halt of reforms in China, the ghost of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東) has been revitalized, making studying in China less attractive.

  However, China’s “united front” work is apparently at a loss for new ideas.

  While the CCP is trying to lure Taiwanese youth, the KMT is colluding with it by intimidating them — with a focus on the Cabinet’s draft amendments to the General Mobilization Act (全民防衛動員準備法).

  The KMT says that such amendments would turn it into a vicious law that restricts freedom of the press, and forces young people onto the battlefield. As a result, it is doing its utmost to stir opposition to the drafts.

  Young Taiwanese would only go to war if China invades the nation, and they would do this out of necessity, to defend themselves. The purpose of the government’s draft amendments is to deal with possible emergency contingencies during wartime.

  As history has shown, once a war breaks out, press freedom is often the first to fall. The KMT has been through wars, and previously imposed censorship laws. It knows all too well that freedom of the press available in peacetime is not possible in times of war.

  The KMT’s biggest problem lies in its threats toward youth, as it is trying to destroy their patriotic sentiment. The constitution, which the KMT created, says: “The people shall have the duty of performing military service in accordance with law.”

  When the KMT ruled during the Martial Law era, students were obliged to sing The Song of Departure (出征歌).

  “Guns on our shoulders, blood in our chests, we come to defend our country, we go to the battleground together,” the lyrics go, encouraging young people to reclaim “the mainland.”

  The KMT has made a U-turn by intimidating them, and dissuading them from having the will to defend themselves.

  Nobody wants war. If young Chinese could choose freely, they would choose to go to Peking University, not to war. For Beijing, one false step could make a huge difference between launching and avoiding a war. If it does not invade Taiwan by force, the youth of neither country would have to go to war.

  James Wang is a senior journalist.

  Translated by Eddy Chang
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