Thu, Jun 24, 2004 page3

• SEF claims China spoke against conference

  • By Melody Chen / STAFF REPORTER
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  Beijing told China-based Taiwanese businesspeople not to return home to join a government-hosted conference in celebration of the Dragon Boat Festival, Yen Wan-ching (顏萬進), deputy secretary-general of the semi-official Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), said yesterday.

  The government routinely invites China-based Taiwanese businesspeople to come home to attend conferences on the three major Chinese festivals of the year -- the Lunar New Year, the Dragon Boat Festival and the Moon Festival.

  The conference for the Dragon Boat Festival, held yesterday and today in Ilan, however, attracted only 80 Taiwanese business leaders to return from China, a sharp decrease from the 120 participants in the Lunar New Year conference.

  The government holds the conferences to explain cross-strait policies and collect the businesspeoples' opinions about how the government should shape its policies.

  Following the attack by the Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece the People's Daily on pro-Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) businessman Hsu Wen-lung (許文龍) earlier this month, the Chinese authorities have used considerable pressure to force Taiwanese businesspeople to avoid the conference, Yen said.

  Fearful of being labeled as "pro-green" and thus having their business suffer in China, many Taiwanese business leaders withdrew from the conference.

  There are more than 70 Taiwanese business associations in China. Almost all of the presidents of the associations went home for the Lunar New Year conference. This time, only 15 presidents were in the conference.

  President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), who has only missed such a conference on one occasion, did not plan to appear at the conference in Ilan. Mainland Affairs Council Chairman Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) was the keynote speaker at a dinner banquet for the businesspeople.

  Yen did not say whether the president's absence from the conference was related to China's actions and the response from the business community. He said the foundation had only suggested the president join the Lunar New Year conference.

  Despite the reduced number of participants, Yen said the foundation was touched by seeing the businesspeople at the conference.

  "They more or less were under pressure from China, which asked them not to come to this conference," he said.

  Though the number of participants in the conference was fewer than at previous ones, the turnout was actually better than the foundation expected, the official said.

  "Their participation is very precious. We understand the difficulties of those who chose not to come back. Their absence from the conference doesn't mean they no longer identify with Taiwan. It doesn't mean their loyalty to Taiwan has been shaken, either," Yen added.

  Businesspeople interviewed at the conference, however, denied that Chinese authorities had asked them not to come home, but all kept tight-lipped about China's criticism of Hsu and other pro-green businesspeople.

  Andrew Yeh (葉春榮), vice president of the Taiwan Businessmen Association in Dongguan, appeared unaffected by China's hostility towards pro-DPP businessmen.

  "Politics is politics. Business is business," he said.

  Many China-based Taiwanese businesspeoples' moods have remained sour since the March presidential election. The post-election turmoil made both pro-blue and pro-green businesspeople in China very unhappy, according to Yeh.

  Yeh said he joined the conference because it was his duty. However, he expressed frustration about the government's inaction towards their most urgent needs, including the implementation of the three direct links and extension of national health insurance to those who work and live in China.

  "We really have nothing new to say to the government. We have said all we want to say. Experience has told me it is useless to tell the government our needs," Yeh said.

  Wu Chin-chung (吳進忠), president of the Taiwan Businessmen Association in Xiamen, also expressed hope the government can implement the three direct links as soon as possible.

  Asked whether Chinese officials had asked Taiwanese businesspeople not to come home for the conference, Wu said he had never heard of such a thing in Xiamen.
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