A colonial mindset
In their second documentary episode on China’s “united front” efforts, Taiwanese YouTuber “Pa Chiung” (八炯) and Taiwanese rapper Chen Po-yuan (陳柏源), discussed the latest Chinese Communist Party (CCP) tactics, revealing that 200,000 Taiwanese citizens in China have obtained Chinese ID cards.
We should hit “pause” and look closer at these 200,000 people, and their impact on Taiwanese society.
Tentatively, we should remember that this “200,000” figure could be an official number issued by a Chinese government body, a number hawked around by CCP propaganda outlets, or perhaps a ballpark number from Chinese disinformation farms.
To be sure, one sometimes hears about Taiwanese who apply for IDs from various levels of China’s bureaucracy to stay abreast of the CCP’s “united front” political benefits, maintain financial benefits or keep personal benefits. These people certainly pose different degrees of national security risk. Taiwanese ought to be strict when judging and handling such bad actors. It is best to prevent people who accept Chinese government-issued IDs from swindling their way around Taiwanese social circles.
Meanwhile, what needs clarifying is the appearance of zhiren (殖人) — used to mean “someone with a colonial mindset” — cut from the same cloth as Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Weng Hsiao-ling (翁曉玲).
Zhiren is an in-vogue Internet slang term in China that lacks a clear-cut official definition, but often “describes someone who worships anything Western, and disparages or hates their own ancestral people. Some characteristics of such people are that they are infatuated with power and chase after all things foreign; have a servile complex; engage in double standards and are extremely opposed to anything ‘China’ [using the broad Han cultural term, ‘Hua,’ 華].”
If we simply switch out the word “Hua” for “Taiwan,” this term perfectly depicts the Wengs of Taiwan.
Since taking office, Weng has championed proposals and amendments that would gut our constitution and hobble our government, praises and idolizes the CCP, and holds an unsavory track record of disparaging Taiwan at every chance.
When these reports leak, they serve as CCP propaganda to show how “model Taiwan compatriots long for China,” muddying the international community’s understanding of Taiwan. Weng used her inquiry time in the legislature while questioning Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) to “cite scripture” to sneak in the argument that the CCP is reasonable for wanting to “recover” Taiwan.
Article 11 of China’s National Security Law says that “every citizen has a duty and obligation to safeguard national security.” Put simply, when the CCP uses the guise of national security and wants you to become a spy and sabotage Taiwan, and orders you to steal trade secrets — you have no choice but to do so, because it is your “duty and obligation.”
It is curious whether Weng works so diligently to sell Chinese “duty and obligation” because she maintains her “Chineseness,” but if she remains adamant on hawking CCP directives without possessing a Chinese ID card, perhaps she is a genuine zhiren for China.
Muduo
Taipei
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