Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) on Monday rebuked seven Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers for stalling a special defense budget and visiting China.
The legislators — including Weng Hsiao-ling (翁曉玲), Yeh Yuan-chih (葉元之) and Lin Szu-ming (林思銘) — attended an event in Xiamen, China, over the weekend hosted by the Xiamen Taiwan Businessmen Association, where they met officials from Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO).
“Weng’s decision to stall the special defense budget defies majority public opinion,” Wu said, accusing KMT legislators of acting as proxies for Beijing.
KMT Legislator Wu Tsung-hsien (吳宗憲), acting head of the party’s Culture and Communications Committee, defended the trip, saying that they must understand the needs of Taiwanese businesses operating in China.
Separately, association head Han Ying-huan (韓螢煥) said the legislators’ participation was a private engagement intended to promote peaceful cross-strait coexistence and avoid unnecessary disruption.
No active or recently retired Taiwanese official should visit China for any purpose. The details of such trips can never be transparent. This concern is reinforced by the steady stream of espionage and infiltration cases uncovered in the past few years involving politicians, businesspeople and retired military officers.
Han’s assertion that the event was merely a private exchange strains credibility. In practice, it is impossible for a business association in China to operate without government consent — particularly when organizing events involving Taiwanese participants. Taiwanese media reported that TAO officials were present at the event, underscoring its political nature.
Even if TAO representatives had not attended, such events typically require prior approval from Beijing. Business associations in China commonly have Chinese Communist Party (CCP) committees embedded in their structure, which influence or oversee major decisions. The distinction between “private” and “official” activity in China is therefore largely illusory.
Wu’s remarks about public opinion also warrant scrutiny. His claim that stalling the defense budget runs counter to public sentiment is accurate when considering the electorate as a whole, but less so when broken down by party affiliation.
A poll conducted by the Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation found that 53.7 percent of respondents disapproved of opposition parties blocking review of the defense budget. However, 52 percent of KMT supporters and 59 percent of Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) supporters approved of the move.
Together, the KMT and the TPP hold a legislative majority. Moreover, recall votes targeting lawmakers from the two parties in July and August failed. This suggests that the opposition parties continue to retain the support of their voter base.
Opposition to unification with China remains high across supporters of all major parties. This suggests that while opposition supporters wish to preserve Taiwan’s sovereignty, many do not view China as an immediate threat to justify increased defense spending. Nor do they see economic ties with China as a risk.
That assessment ignores how Beijing operates. China routinely exploits economic and cultural exchanges to advance its unification agenda, leveraging access to its market to pressure businesses and people into making political concessions.
Such concessions are no longer theoretical. Taiwanese businesspeople operating in China have been required to explicitly endorse Beijing’s claim of sovereignty over Taiwan and, in some cases, to apply for Chinese identification documents. These measures blur legal and political boundaries in ways that serve Beijing’s interests.
China has also demanded confidential product data and customer records from Taiwanese and other foreign companies. Businesses can be shuttered, accounts frozen or executives detained with little warning, often for opaque political reasons.
Supporters of the opposition parties might be unaware of these risks or might dismiss them as exaggerated. This is partly due to sustained disinformation efforts by the CCP, which portray China as economically ascendant, while dismissing reports of coercion or rights abuses as fabrications. Older voters might be particularly vulnerable, whether due to lower media literacy or appeals to a shared “Chinese” identity.
There is little doubt that China poses a threat to Taiwan’s de facto independence. Should Taiwan fail to prepare, the US and other friendly nations might be reluctant or slow to intervene. Even if the US were to intervene, analysts have warned that Taiwan would need to withstand an assault for weeks before assistance could arrive, thus necessitating high defense spending.
If Taiwanese are serious about resisting forced unification, they must communicate that — by pressing the KMT and the TPP to change course, or by voting accordingly in 2028. Otherwise, the opposition parties would continue pursuing warmer ties with Beijing while constraining defense spending, leaving Taiwan increasingly exposed.
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