INTERFERENCE:
Beijing has adopted psychological warfare including trade barriers to gain influence on the voting behavior of Taiwanese, a report said
By Chen Fu-yu / Staff reporter
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) interference in Taiwan’s elections is an attempt aimed at compelling the new president-elect to negotiate on trade-related issues and moving toward its goal of economic integration, a recent report by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said.
The report said that as the presidential election draws closer, the CCP has intentionally used the issues, including trade barrier investigation, bans on agricultural export and Chinese tourists to intensify its interference in Taiwan’s election.
The CPP also continued to meet with some Taiwanese figures to make the impression that cross-strait relations are facing a choice of future prospect — between “peace and war” and between “prosperity and recession” — with the aim of influencing voting intentions, it said.
Photo: Chung Li-hua, Taipei Times
The report attributed China’s interference to mainly three reasons: “Beijing’s heightened sense of crisis toward Taiwan’s situation,” that “the normalization of the US-Taiwan relationship has struck China’s raw nerve,” and that “China’s worsening domestic issues prompts it to intensify pressure on Taiwan.”
The Taiwanese government’s refusing Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) “one country, two systems” formula is seen by Beijing as challenging Xi’s Taiwan policy and damaging his prestige, it said.
China’s sluggish demand, sagging economy and high unemployment rate have contributed to internal pressure on Beijing to be more proactive on Taiwan.
Beijing is attempting to change the cross-strait relation structure from inside Taiwan by manipulating voters to elect a more China-friendly president, the report said.
Beijing aims to change the cross-strait dynamics from being among “equals” to a “master-slave relationship,” it said.
China is using its trade barrier investigation and other elements of psychological warfare to threaten Taiwanese, the report said.
Another aim of such psychological warfare is to put pressure on the president-elect to restart the cross-strait service trade agreement and economic cooperation framework agreement talks with China to accomplish “cross-strait economic integration,” it said.
The scholars commissioned by the MAC to produce the report said that although increasingly more Taiwanese businesspeople doing business in China are returning to Taiwan, the government should take necessary actions to assist them and prevent their losses.
In the mid to long term, the government should assist those that would be badly affected by an industrial transformation by increasing their resilience, and in the short term it should at least provide similar-scaled subsidies to make up for the effect of China’s coercive actions, they said.
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