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Misguided policies
will lead to unification
By Huang Tien-lin 黃天麟
China’s use of economic means to promote unification with Taiwan is in no way a
mere conspiracy theory. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) openly admitted it
some time ago and it is well known that it complements this policy by aiming
more than 1,000 missiles at Taiwan. Despite this, some years ago a person who
considers himself a wise man sang the praises of Taiwanese businesses “boldly
going west” (大膽西進), and moving into China.
In 1998 that person was the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman. That
year, he held an internal party debate on the DPP’s China policy in which he
succeeded in incorporating the idea of “boldly going west” into the party’s
previous stance of “strengthening the home base” (強本), and forming a consensus
on the issue within the party.
This ultimately led to a situation in which Academia Sinica academician Yu
Ying-shih (余英時) could say that the CCP is using Taiwanese businesspeople to buy
Taiwan’s media. The former chairman later left the party, angry over his failure
to be nominated for an election, but his actions had a lasting impact on DPP
policies.
In 2000, the DPP aligned itself with corporations intent on breaking into the
Chinese market. This led it to adopt a policy of “pro-active liberalization”
(積極開放) in terms of trade with China, allowing Taiwanese businesses to go to
China and set up factories for numerous types of industrial products.
“Pro-active liberalization” replaced the previous policy of “no haste, be
patient” (戒急用忍) and Taiwan quickly lost capital and technology to China.
Taiwan’s economic status has declined ever since.
Even though the DPP replaced this policy with one of “pro-active management”
(積極管理) after two years, it was already too late. By then, an ever-increasing
dependency on China had changed the way the Taiwanese viewed “localization”
(本土化). The DPP gradually lost popularity and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)
was able to regain power.
President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration benefited from a combination of
the DPP’s various China policies like “boldly going west” because it accepted
China’s requests for a loosening of economic restrictions after the KMT returned
to power.
Ma’s policy of “total liberalization” (全面開放), or the removal of restrictions on
Taiwanese investment in China, saw a rapid increase in the number of Taiwanese
businesses setting up there, along with an increase in the number and variety of
industries they invested in. This caused Taiwan’s economy to slow down even
more.
Then, in 2010, the Ma government took things a step further and signed the
Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) with China. This allowed China’s
strategy of using economic means to promote unification to enter its second
phase; controlling Taiwan’s economy by using Taiwanese businesspeople. This is
why the recent buyout of the Next Media Group has caused people like Yu and
young people concerned over the nation’s economic and political future to become
suspicious and worried.
When looking at the mess Taiwan is now in, it should be remembered that this is
the inevitable outcome of a combination of past policies such as “boldly going
west,” “strengthening the home base,” “pro-active liberalization,” “total
liberalization” and the ECFA. Even now there are still a certain number of
people who promote these ideas within the DPP, a party that is supposed to
concern itself with Taiwan’s democratic values. These people are contributing to
Taiwan moving ever closer toward a path of no return that represents “eventual
unification” (終統) and this is truly the saddest thing.
Huang Tien-lin was a presidential adviser to former president Chen Shui-bian.
Translated by Drew Cameron
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