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.”
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
WAR’S END ANNIVERSARY: ‘Taiwan does not believe in commemorating peace by holding guns,’ the president said on social media after attending a morning ceremony Countries should uphold peace, and promote freedom and democracy, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday as Taiwan marked 80 years since the end of World War II and the Second Sino-Japanese War. Lai, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) and other top officials in the morning attended a ceremony at the National Revolutionary Martyrs’ Shrine in Taipei’s Zhongshan District (中山) to honor those who sacrificed their lives in major battles. “Taiwanese are peace-loving. Taiwan does not believe in commemorating peace by holding guns,” Lai wrote on Facebook afterward, apparently to highlight the contrast with the military parade in Beijing marking the same anniversary. “We
RSS