Taiwanese businesses investing in China become political force
WILLIAM FOREMAN, Associated Press Writer
Thursday, February 5, 2004
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(02-05) 01:02 PST TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) --
The hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese doing business in rival China have long been a quiet bunch that just focused on their factories and avoided getting involved in Taiwan's raucous presidential campaigns.
Not anymore. The businessmen are evolving into a boisterous lobby ahead of the March 20 election. Many of their leaders say they'll support opposition Nationalist Party candidate Lien Chan, who promises to forge friendlier ties with China.
For the first time, the business leaders say they're organizing a mass migration of voters who will return to the island of some 23 million people to vote against President Chen Shui-bian, who's distrusted by China's communist leadership.
"In the past, Taiwanese businessmen have been ambivalent about politics. But now we've changed and we're very concerned and active," said Huang Liang-hwa, who's helping to round up votes for Lien.
The business lobby accuses Chen of roiling relations with China and stalling on expanding trade ties with the mainland. Their votes could make a big difference in a tight race.
Officials estimate that about 400,000 eligible Taiwanese voters are working in China, including owners and managers of factories, restaurants, karaoke bars and other services.
But appearances are usually deceiving when it comes to Taiwanese politics. Ruling party officials and some analysts suspect that many of the businessmen are just putting on a show to please Chinese leaders and protect their investments.
China has long been deeply suspicious of Chen for his reluctance to endorse Beijing's sacred goal of unifying the two sides. Taiwan has resisted Chinese rule ever since the Communists took over the mainland in 1949.
Although leaders from both sides haven't met in more than five decades, business ties have been booming since the island began relaxing restrictions on investing in China in the early 1990s. Last year, Taiwanese invested $4.59 billion -- a 19 percent increase from 2002, Taiwan's government said.
The Taiwanese investors have become a key player in China's strategy to use business ties to tightly bind Taiwan to China. They're also an important political constituency for Beijing, replacing fringe, pro-China parties that had little popular appeal here. The businessmen have a huge vested interest in China, and they pressure Taiwan's government to be more sympathetic to Beijing's demands.
The new business lobby recently held a coming-out party in a chilly basement meeting hall in the Nationalists' brown marble headquarters in the capital, Taipei.
About 50 leaders of Taiwanese business associations -- similar to chambers of commerce -- across China pledged their allegiance to Lien and his running mate James Soong.
Lien and Soong arrived in time for a lunch banquet with red wine, platters of duck and fried shrimp over rice noodles.
Before the meal, the charismatic Soong told the businessmen that the current ruling party didn't care about them and treated them like they were traitors funneling investment dollars away from Taiwan to rival China.
"People have dignity. They should be respected. They should be cared for," Soong said to loud applause.
But one of the president's top election strategists, Wu Nai-jen, said he suspected many of the business people were faking their support for the opposition. Many feared that if they didn't publicly endorse Lien, vindictive Chinese officials would threaten their investments, Wu said.
"One director of a Taiwanese business association called me at the last minute today and said that if he didn't come and support Lien and Soong, then next year his factory's accounts would be audited," Wu said.
But Ho Hsi-hau, who works for a Taiwanese business association in southern Fujian province, denied that China has been intimidating the businessmen or providing financial assistance to their campaign.
"I can say that China hasn't given us any overt or covert pressure. If people try to stir up this issue, I think that's really bad," Ho said.
Political scientist Li Si-kuen thinks it's likely that nearly half a million businessmen will return to Taiwan for the election. He doubts that many will actually vote, although they might have a big impact in encouraging friends and family to back Lien.
"I think a lot of them will come back just because they don't want to be suspected of supporting Chen Shui-bian," said Li, who teaches at the elite National Taiwan University.
On the surface, it would appear that Lien would be favored by the business leaders because of his China-friendly policies, Li said. But many investors in China will think that they might benefit more from tense Taiwan-China relations, he said.
When there's friction, the Taiwanese businessmen become valuable pawns in China's public relations campaign and receive special treatment, Li said.
But if Taiwan ever unifies with China, Li said, the business people "won't have any special status. They'll become political slaves."
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