Bejing’s promotion of cross-strait exchanges is nothing but propaganda and an attempt to poach Taiwanese talent, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) urged young Taiwanese to support unification.
“I am glad to learn that young people from Taiwan have witnessed the rapid developments and changes of the motherland, and felt the warm feelings between compatriots from both sides of the Taiwan Strait who are all of the same family,” Xi told the Straits Youth Forum in Xiamen earlier yesterday.
The coorganizers of this year’s forum — the 20th iteration of the event — included the Chinese Communist Party’s All-China Youth Federation and the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Department of Youth Affairs.
Photo: CNA
Young Taiwanese should join hands with their Chinese counterparts to “strive relentlessly for national rejuvenation,” Xi said.
In response, the MAC said that educational exchanges are part of Beijing’s campaign to gain political influence in Taiwan, but its promises are not made in good faith.
Citing Xi’s comment, the MAC said the Chinese leader pledged to “maintain the excellent conditions of academic exchanges across the Strait as before.”
Xi’s claim was undercut by the Chinese government in April 2020 unilaterally shutting down the path for Chinese students to study in Taiwan, it said.
“It is clear that China’s exchanges and proclamations of mutual benefits for young Taiwanese are nothing but propaganda to poach talent to fill capability gaps in its economy,” the MAC said. “Its claims of mutually beneficial exchanges are insincere.”
Information packets warning Taiwanese of the pitfalls of studying or working in China were published on the council’s Web page ahead of the forum, while domestic groups are urged not to become tools of Beijing, it said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Mei-hui (王美惠) said China is taking advantage of young first-time jobseekers with empty promises of economic opportunities.
Many Taiwanese investors have lost money in the Chinese market due to predatory state-sanctioned business practices, she said, adding that a society devoid of democracy and human rights can offer no advantages.
“Young people should be aware of the true conditions behind the facade in China,” she said. “As for the fatherland, one country on each side has long since been the reality for Taiwan and China.”
The National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology yesterday showcased its locally developed variants of the Vision 60 robotic patrol dog, which it plans to deploy on the nation’s outlying territories in the South China Sea. The variants were produced under the Joint Lab project — created by the institute and domestic companies — and assembled with domestically produced motors, lenses and artificial intelligence (AI) systems alongside licensed tech from the US, Missile and Rocket Systems Research Division deputy director Jen Kuo-kang (任國光) told the media event at a military base in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) area. Taiwan has built up its strengths
RIGHT DIRECTION: Taiwan’s efforts to prevent forced labor include a proposal to ‘fully prohibit’ employers from withholding workers’ documents, an official said Taiwan is to establish a mechanism to restrict imports of goods linked to forced labor, the Executive Yuan said yesterday, after the US proposed imposing additional tariffs on Taiwanese goods over labor concerns. “The Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Economic Affairs are to establish an interministerial review procedure,” Executive Yuan spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “The government is to use the Foreign Trade Act [貿易法] as the legal basis to restrict imports of goods produced with forced labor” and bring its supply chain governance more in line with international standards on human rights, resilience
NOT IMMEDIATE: Taiwan has a chance to appeal the proposed 10 percent tariff before it starts, while other countries face a 12.5 percent tariff from the trade office Taiwan is among 60 economies determined by the US to have failed to impose or enforce a ban on the importation of goods produced with forced labor, according to a notice released on Tuesday by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), which proposed imposing an additional 10 percent or more tariff on them. The USTR in a statement said that following an investigation, it had determined under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 that the failure of the 60 economies to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor is
TIT-FOR-TAT: The US allegedly revoked the visa of a Chinese national working at Xinhua News Agency in the US in response to Beijing’s expulsion of Vivian Wang The Presidential Office yesterday condemned China for expelling a New York Times correspondent from Beijing following the newspaper’s interview with President William Lai (賴清德), saying the move highlighted Beijing’s suppression of press freedom and its threat to international news media. Taiwan has noted a series of recent incidents in which Beijing used similar tactics to “threaten and pressure international media outlets and journalists,” Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said in a statement. “This concerns not only press freedom and freedom of expression, but also the safety of journalists, and Taiwan and relevant partners are paying close attention to the situation,” she
RSS