China’s political warfare against Taiwan is this year to emphasize recruiting first-time Taiwanese visitors to study and work in China’s Fujian Province, an academic said yesterday.
The Fujian Provincial Government’s “united front” work plan for this year showed a special interest in absorbing young or politically inexperienced Taiwanese to achieve the annexation of Taiwan, said Cheng Cheng-ping (鄭政秉), a professor of finance at the National Yunlin University of Science and Technology.
Fujian is a bellwether for China’s political strategy to annex Taiwan, as Beijing deems the province the vanguard of “united front” work, Cheng said.
Photo: Reuters
China’s flagging economy might have partially informed the Fujian plan for Taiwanese to stimulate economic activity, industry and the labor market, he said.
Young Taiwanese might also have the knowledge and training Beijing needs to overcome a US technology embargo on semiconductors and equipment used in artificial intelligence products, he said.
However, the best evidence suggests that showcase economic zones for young Taiwanese have been an expensive failure for the province and its persistence in the projects likely reflects a political motive, he said.
The zones did not recruit Taiwanese with economically valuable skills, but drew discontented and dispossessed people, he added.
The Fujian plan states that the economic programs are in the service of China’s quest to “achieve the unification of the fatherland,” he cited the document as saying.
“China’s ultimate goal is to take over Taiwan, ideally without firing a shot,” Cheng said. “In the long term, China seems to be willing to spend a lot to get Taiwanese with low competitiveness to move there, even when its economy is weak.”
The emphasis on showing a curated version of China to common Taiwanese tourists and borough wardens, and courting residents of Kinmen and Lienchiang counties have been relatively successful, Cheng said.
The public should be more alert to China’s hostile intentions, he said.
The “united front” work plan published by the provincial government on Monday directed officials to broaden exchanges in education, law, health, technology, sports, cultural and hospitality sectors.
The plan called for increased flights between Taiwan and Fujian, encouraging young Taiwanese and first-time visitors to find jobs in the province and redoubling efforts to build economic integration demonstration zones.
It stipulated decreased restrictions for Taiwanese to invest in China, the establishment of special zones for start-ups and agriculture projects, and incorporating Kinmen and Lienchiang into Fujian’s economic sphere.
The province is use its cultural claim as the “ancestral land” to promote Taiwanese history as part of Fujian, Matsu veneration and other cultural exchanges, the plan said.
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