Mainland envoys storm Taiwan's shops
By Jens Kastner
TAIPEI - It was a scene that stunned millions in front of Taiwan's television
screens in late October 2008. Broadcast in a never-ending loop, visiting
Chinese official Zhang Mingqing, vice chairman of the Association for Relations
Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) - mainland China's top negotiation body with
Taiwan, was seen being pushed to the ground by a furious mob in the parking lot
of a Confucius temple in southern Taiwan. Onlookers cheered as the roof of
Zhang's vehicle became a trampoline for anti-China protesters.
One month later, after Zhang's superior Chen Yunlin, ARATS' chairman, arrived
in Taipei, brutal clashes shocked a city that had not witnessed riots for
years.
However, anti-China emotions have not run that high in Taiwan
since that period, and during the past two months delegations representing
Chinese provinces and municipalities have been visiting Taiwan almost on a
weekly basis. Nowadays, large groups of mainland officials travel the island
without being hassled. Hundreds of agreements are being signed that will bring
Taiwan's economy ever closer to mainland China's, and unlike two years ago
anti-China demonstrations are not drawing significant crowds.
The mainland's envoys place huge orders of a wide variety of Taiwanese
products. Even in southern Taiwan, the pro-independence opposition Democratic
Progressive Party's (DPP) stronghold, local governments and businesspeople have
been welcoming the spending power from across the Taiwan Straits with open
arms.
Taiwan's opposition cries foul play. It claims that the nature of the visits
isn't purely economic. According to the DPP, by sending envoys that represent
Chinese provinces rather than China as a nation, Beijing manifests its claim
that Taiwan is more or less a province of China.
"The Chinese government wants to create itself an image as the helper and the
savior of the Taiwanese people through these procurement sprees," says Hsieh
Huai-hui, deputy director of the DPP's Department for International Affairs, in
an interview given to Asia Times Online. "Unfortunately, I am afraid that
behind the visits lies a hidden political agenda."
Every provincial and municipal delegation that has been touring Taiwan during
the past two months signed dozens of purchase agreements. Since there's a wide
variety of Taiwanese industries involved, the orders are believed to bring
benefits to large parts of the Taiwanese population. The envoys promised to buy
everything from biotech medicine to flat panels, from food products to
automotive parts. If there's something that all agreements have in common it's
that they are likely to be to Taiwan's immediate economical advantage.
Faced with millions of dollars worth of Chinese direct investment, Taiwan's
opposition naturally is having a hard time warning the public to be cautious.
According to Hsieh, China's supposed philanthropy raises wrong expectations
among the Taiwanese. Businessmen and farmers alike are attracted to the
potential profits from trading with China's provinces directly, said Hsieh.
That Beijing's attempt to conduct a change of image bears fruit is proven by
the fact that Chinese provincial and municipal delegations, unlike their
national-level predecessors in 2008, travel Taiwan without encountering
significant protests.
Early in April, Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng mingled with the crowd on Taipei's
subway trains and put himself in a favorable light by distributing toys of
Haibao, the official mascot of the Shanghai 2010 World Expo, to children
receiving treatment for hearing difficulties. Apart from these public relations
stunts, Han signed as many as 28 exchange and purchase agreements.
Two weeks later, Luo Qingquan, Chinese Communist Party secretary of Hubei
province, who led a delegation of 1,000, opened the Taiwan-Hubei Week in
Taipei. Hubei's delegation is said to have ordered Taiwanese products worth
more than US$25 million.
A female representative of a Hubei company described in a way that likely led
to a mouth-watering effect among Taiwan's producers of cosmetics that millions
of Chinese consumers are eager to see Taiwanese cremes, shampoo and face masks
on the mainland market.
Then, in early May came the governor of Fujian province Huang Xiaojing.
According to the Chinese media, direct exchanges were established between no
fewer than 100 villages and towns from each side. The province governed by
Huang is of particular relevance since it lies just on the opposite side of the
Taiwan Strait.
A forum was held where there was much talk about the cultural and ethnic
connections Fujian and Taiwan have since many Taiwanese have ancestors who
emigrated hundreds of years ago from Fujian province. The spoken Taiwanese
dialect today in fact is known as the "southern Fujian dialect". The forum was
ended with a contract signing ceremony for Fujian companies to invest in
Taiwan. Governor Huang also visited Kaohsiung, but even in this traditional DPP
stronghold, nothing happened that would have shown serious public resentments.
The largest orders were planned to be placed by a delegation from Shandong
province in north China that arrived in mid-May. Purchase agreements for US$620
million worth of Taiwan's agricultural, chemical, textile and food products,
electronic and machinery were expected to be inked.
Taiwanese president Ma Ying-jeou's government says it will sign an Economic
Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) with China in June. The plan which cost
him considerable political capital earlier this year, seems to gradually be
seen by the Taiwanese public in a more favorable light. Whereas Ma's approval
ratings hovered at around 25% in February and March, his party, the Kuomintang,
now claims them to be as high as 39%. It can safely be assumed that the
procurement trips of Chinese province have played a role in the improvement in
Ma's standing.
That a moderate China stance goes down well with the majority of the Taiwanese
is something the DPP has also noticed. The hallmark aggressive tone towards
China that the party has used since the former Taiwanese president Chen
Shui-bian era has significantly softened. DPP under Chen has stubbornly refused
to have any contact with Beijing unless the latter recognizes the island as an
independent country.
But the current DPP chairwoman, Tsai Ying-wen, proclaimed recently that her
party is willing to deal with China with no pre-conditions. Although she has
been criticized by opponents within the party for abandoning the DPP's "Taiwan
independence clause", most DPP members seem to have realized that a strict
anti-China policy will now never get the support of the majority of Taiwanese
voters.
According to Hsieh of the DPP's Department of International Affairs, there's
nothing wrong with delegations from China's provinces visiting Taiwan. What she
finds alarming is what the DPP calls a total lack of transparency. As the names
and backgrounds of the delegates aren't being made public, nobody knows for
sure who comes to engage in direct exchanges with Taiwan's local government
officials and the business world. Hsieh can't believe that it's all people who
have nothing but trade in mind as it is claimed. She worries that the
delegations are infiltrated with China's political agents.
Hsieh expresses an opinion that is likely to be shared with many Taiwanese,
nevertheless. She says, "China is so close to Taiwan and so huge. We want
Taiwan and China to have very good relations, and we want to extend
cross-straits trade. However, things would be much easier if China was a
democracy."
Jens Kastner is a Taipei-based reporter.
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