Beijing is training Taiwanese at Minnan Normal University to assist its “united front” efforts in Taiwan, a China researcher said on Tuesday.
The school in Zhangzhou, in China’s Fujian Province, had already trained nearly 300 Taiwanese as of last month, National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) professor Hung Ching-fu (洪敬富) said.
Taiwanese graduating from the program would be expected to return to Taiwan as “pioneering seeds of China’s united front” efforts, he said, adding that the government should be on guard.
From September last year to last month, China held six semesters of the training program, he said, adding that it ramped up enrollment efforts this year to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Students in the program are required to pledge an oath of allegiance to the CCP, and must study Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) teachings on “socialism with Chinese characteristics in a new era,” he said.
“They are also taught about the CCP’s policies toward Taiwan and told they are to shoulder the responsibility of helping ‘the motherland unify peacefully,’” Hung said. “They are told this should be the greatest ambition of their lifetime.”
The CCP has also been trying to appeal to Taiwanese by offering educational programs in Hoklo (also known as Taiwanese), and by telling them that “people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are one family” and that “blood is thicker than water,” he said.
“The program emphasizes the similarities of Taiwan’s Hoklo culture with that of China’s Fujian Province, and teaches students that China’s economy can benefit Taiwan,” he said. “It also covers plans for implementing China’s ‘one country, two systems’ framework in Taiwan.”
The CCP hopes that if any of the graduates obtain influential roles in Taiwan, they can use that influence to advance China-friendly policies, he said.
“Basically the CCP is trying to use Taiwanese to annex Taiwan,” he said.
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