Nearly 40,000 Taiwanese last year joined industry events in China, such as conferences and trade fairs, supported by the Chinese government, a study showed yesterday, as Beijing ramps up a charm offensive toward Taipei alongside military pressure.
China has long taken a carrot-and-stick approach to Taiwan, threatening it with the prospect of military action while reaching out to those it believes are amenable to Beijing’s point of view.
Taiwanese security officials are wary of what they see as Beijing’s influence campaigns to sway public opinion after Taipei and Beijing gradually resumed travel links halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the scale of such programs have not previously been systematically reported.
Photo: Reuters
A study by the Taiwan Information Environment Research Center (IORG) showed that 39,374 Taiwanese last year joined more than 400 business events supported or organized by government units across China.
The research by the Taiwan-based non-government organization analyzed more than 7,300 articles posted by a news portal run by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office.
These articles offered event details, including the scale, location and agenda, and were examined with the assistance of artificial intelligence tools and verified by IORG researchers.
The number of Taiwanese attending state-supported business events in China rose 3 percent from 2023, the IORG said, adding that the agriculture, tourism, and biotechnology and medical industries were among the top sectors.
“These are common industries in which the Chinese Communist Party exerts political pressure on Taiwan through economic means,” the report said.
The Taiwan Affairs Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧) told an internal meeting on Taiwan in February that Beijing was working to expand people-to-people exchanges in a bid to “deepen cross-strait integration and development,” Xinhua news agency reported at the time.
The events surveyed by the IORG included a job fair in June last year in China’s Fujian Province targeting more than 1,500 Taiwanese university graduates.
“Reward and punishment always go hand-in-hand in the Chinese influence campaigns on Taiwan,” IORG codirector Yu Chih-hao (游知澔) said. “Military drills and intimidation are punishment; cross-strait business cooperations are reward.”
China staged two days of war games near Taiwan this month.
FREEDOM OF NAVIGATION: The UK would continue to reinforce ties with Taiwan ‘in a wide range of areas’ as a part of a ‘strong unofficial relationship,’ a paper said The UK plans to conduct more freedom of navigation operations in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs David Lammy told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. British Member of Parliament Desmond Swayne said that the Royal Navy’s HMS Spey had passed through the Taiwan Strait “in pursuit of vital international freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.” Swayne asked Lammy whether he agreed that it was “proper and lawful” to do so, and if the UK would continue to carry out similar operations. Lammy replied “yes” to both questions. The
‘OF COURSE A COUNTRY’: The president outlined that Taiwan has all the necessary features of a nation, including citizens, land, government and sovereignty President William Lai (賴清德) discussed the meaning of “nation” during a speech in New Taipei City last night, emphasizing that Taiwan is a country as he condemned China’s misinterpretation of UN Resolution 2758. The speech was the first in a series of 10 that Lai is scheduled to give across Taiwan. It is the responsibility of Taiwanese citizens to stand united to defend their national sovereignty, democracy, liberty, way of life and the future of the next generation, Lai said. This is the most important legacy the people of this era could pass on to future generations, he said. Lai went on to discuss
SECOND SPEECH: All political parties should work together to defend democracy, protect Taiwan and resist the CCP, despite their differences, the president said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday discussed how pro-Taiwan and pro-Republic of China (ROC) groups can agree to maintain solidarity on the issue of protecting Taiwan and resisting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The talk, delivered last night at Taoyuan’s Hakka Youth Association, was the second in a series of 10 that Lai is scheduled to give across Taiwan. Citing Taiwanese democracy pioneer Chiang Wei-shui’s (蔣渭水) slogan that solidarity brings strength, Lai said it was a call for political parties to find consensus amid disagreements on behalf of bettering the nation. All political parties should work together to defend democracy, protect Taiwan and resist
By refusing to agree spending increases to appease US President Donald Trump, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez threatened to derail a summit that NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte needs to run smoothly for the sake of the military alliance’s future survival. Ahead of yesterday’s gathering in The Hague, Netherlands, things were going off the rails. European officials have expressed irritation at the spoiler role that Sanchez is playing when their No. 1 task is to line up behind a pledge to raise defense spending to 5 percent of GDP. Rutte needed to keep Spain in line while preventing others such as Slovakia
RSS