Using pandas to further the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “united front” rhetoric would have limited effect, a government source said yesterday, after a top Chinese official last week urged 39 Taiwanese students visiting Sichuan Province to oppose Taiwanese independence.
Undergraduate and master’s students aged 35 or under who would be applying for their first-ever “Taiwan compatriot permit” were eligible for the eight-day camp, which ran from Monday last week to Monday, according to the Web site of the Taiwan Development Institute, which handled recruitment for the trip.
Camp participants would be hosted by the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), which arranged the itinerary, which included a visit to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, Chengdu Radio & Television Co’s headquarters and scenic sites, the Web site said.
Photo courtesy of the Taiwan Development Institute
The ARATS said each participant was expected to pay NT$22,000 for airfares, other travel expenses, accommodation and other costs.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Deputy Director Wu Xi (吳璽) said at the camp’s opening ceremony last week that participants from either side of the Taiwan Strait should interact, work together to promote what is good for the Chinese people, advocate the spread of Chinese culture and steadfastly oppose Taiwanese independence.
In Taipei, a government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, warned about such events.
Regardless of the nature of an event organized by the CCP — even if it is ostensibly about pandas — the core theme is always the same: to promote unification and oppose Taiwanese independence, the official said.
ARATS and China’s Taiwan Affairs Office branches in Chinese provinces have never given up attempting to influence young Taiwanese with their “united front” rhetoric, but the actual effects are limited, the source said.
None of the Taiwanese professors who have worked in China over the past few years have achieved academic success, the official said, adding that the many Taiwanese youth entrepreneurial start-up pilot zones in China have become little more than ghost towns due to the declining economic performance across the Strait.
Any opportunity provided for Taiwanese is snatched from locals, which only breeds discontent among Chinese, the official said, adding that there is little opportunity to find a job or start a business in China.
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