Communist
Party sets up office in Taiwanese firm
INFILTRATION:
In the first such case, the Chinese Communist Party has publicly
set up a cell within a Taiwanese firm based in Shenzhen. Taiwanese
officials are not amused
2001/12/20
CNA WITH STAFF WRITER
The Ministry of Economic Affairs "does not
encourage" Taiwanese companies operating in China getting
involved with the Chinese Communist Party, Minister of Eco-nomic
Affairs Lin Hsin-yi (ªL«H¸q) said yesterday.
Fielding questions at the Legislative Yuan, Lin said reports
of the opening last Saturday of a Chinese Communist Party branch
office in Shenzhen-based Foxconn, an offshoot of Taiwan's Hon
Hai Precision Industry Co, "is an issue that should be
faced squarely and dealt with."
Foxconn is the first Taiwanese-owned company to publicly set
up a Chinese Communist Party cell, even though the party is
believed to have secretly set up cells in many other Taiwanese-owned
firms.
The Foxconn cell consists of 144 communist party members who
are also the company's employees.
On Saturday, the cell elected a seven-member party committee
and a five-member disciplinary committee. All of the 144 members
are Chinese citizens.
Hon Hai's chairman Kuo Tai-ming (³¢¥x»Ê) did not attend the founding
ceremony, but instead sent a written message praising the party
cadres.
Lin said that the economics ministry would stay in close contact
with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Mainland Affairs
Council (MAC) to gain a better understanding of alleged communist
party "infiltration" of Taiwanese-financed business
and industrial enterprises in China.
Lin made the remarks in response to
a question from Chiu Chui-chen (ªô««s), a DPP legislator. Chiu
said that the Chinese Communist Party is aggressively recruiting
China-based Taiwanese business people to organize party branch
operations in an attempt to increase the effectiveness the party's
"united front" overtures toward Taiwan.
Chiu asked Lin whether he knew how many Taiwanese companies
had investments in China and what the government would do if
all Taiwanese firms operating in China became "communized"
and their staffs return to Taiwan to vote.
Lin said that US$19.4 billion had been invested in China by
more than 20,000 companies, although Chinese authorities put
the figure at around US$45 billion.
Lin admitted that, if true, communist party involvement in
Tai-wanese firms in China "is not a good thing," but
said that it is only happening on a small scale and was not
seen as having a major impact on the companies' operations.
Meanwhile, the MAC said that it is investigating communist
party operations at Foxconn and would determine whether they
constitute a violation of Taiwanese law.
The director of the MAC's legal affairs department, Johnnason
Liu (¼B¼w¾±), said that the Foxconn case was an exception, not
part of a growing trend.
He called on China, however, to support Taiwanese corporate
investment and to defend these companies' rights, rather than
turn them into political pawns.