Analysis: China's Charm Offensive Targeting Taiwanese Businesses

TaiwanPlus News

Some 40,000 Taiwanese businesspeople attended industry events in China supported by the Chinese government last year. Cheryl Yu of the Jamestown Foundation speaks to TaiwanPlus about how Chinese influence campaigns targeting Taiwan are evolving.

Transcript

00:00What is China, also known as the PRC, trying to do by hosting events for

00:05Taiwanese business people like this? So as part of the PRC's goal, they are

00:11trying to use this exchange to send their messages and to build. So on one

00:17hand, send the message to show that the PRC is great and on the other

00:23hand, trying to use these exchange activities as a node to connect with

00:31people who attend the events and then to eventually build out its network that

00:37it's able to access, to be able to reach more people in Taiwan. So they have been

00:43saying a lot that Taiwan is part of the PRC and has always been. So that's kind of

00:49like the message that they want to keep pushing out and that China is great

00:54and Taiwan should be part of it. And eventually it had been and it should be.

00:59There's a lot of cultural and business ties across the strait. Is it hard to

01:04distinguish between innocent exchanges and the work of the Chinese Communist

01:09Party's United Front? I'm not sure if there's like real innocent

01:13cross-strait exchanges. United Front work is the work of the whole party. So

01:20every government agencies or party agency has this responsibility to carry out

01:24United Front activities and to help build out the relations. I think it's

01:28important for Taiwan to keep in mind that the PRC's intention when engaging with

01:36them in events like that. So one will be able to discover the subtle

01:41difference between those activities that appear constructive on the surface and

01:45their underlying purpose of the advancing the party's goal which is

01:49in Taiwan's case is to annex or unify Taiwan. Are people in Taiwan becoming more

01:55aware of the threat posed by Chinese coercion here? I think more and more

02:01people are starting to be aware. It's being discussed a lot in the media and on

02:06social media and I think President Lai's commitment is definitely helping with moving

02:16the discussion forward. I think it's the first time that the President of Taiwan

02:22talks about national security threats clearly and directly. I know that he acknowledged the PRC as

02:30a hostile external force which I think would help the society better understand or recognize the

02:37situation that Taiwan is currently in with the PRC. So I think people are getting more aware.

02:44Although currently the discussion has been a bit divided because of the political environment but

02:49it's essentially good to have more debate and discussion so that more people would be

02:55aware of what the PRC is doing and be aware of its intentions.

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