Why wiping out Hong Kong’s opposition may have cost China a whole gene…
But his story could have been very different if he lived in Hong Kong, where student activists once brought the financial center to a standstill as they took to the streets to need democracy and freedoms.
“If I were in Hong Kong, I think I’ll probably be in jail,” said Lin, the 33-year-old deputy secretary-general of Taiwan’s governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
The recent events in Hong Kong have given Lin greater determination to defend Taiwan’s sovereignty, he said — and he is not alone.
Fewer than 8% of respondents favored “unification” with mainland China, while most wanted to continue the position quo — an arrangement by which Taiwan remains self-ruled, without an official declaration of independence.
Samuel Li, a student in the city of Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan said Beijing’s crackdown on Hong Kong had escalated his distrust of the Communist regime.
“It strengthened my thoughts on the Chinese government in (that) they don’t really do what they say. They always break their promises,” he said. “I really wish that Taiwan could keep as it is today.”
Escalating tensions
Mainland China and Taiwan have been governed separately since the end of the Chinese civil war more than 70 years ago, when the defeated Nationalists retreated to the island.
Taiwan is now a thriving multi-party democracy but the mainland’s ruling Chinese Communist Party continues to view the island as an inseparable part of its territory — despite having never controlled it.
Today, relations between Taipei and Beijing are at their lowest point in decades. In October, China’s military sent a record number of warplanes into the air around Taiwan while Chinese diplomats and state-run media warned of a possible invasion unless the island toes Beijing’s line.
But it hasn’t always been this way. In fact, for much of the past 30 years, the possibility of conflict had seemed far away. Beginning in the early 1990s, many Taiwanese firms moved manufacturing operations to the mainland, where labor was cheaper, and authorities were hungry for outside investment to fuel economic growth.
Ties further flourished after the turn of the century. Taiwanese pop music and television became wildly popular on the mainland, and Chinese tourists flocked to visit Taiwan, promoted by state media as China’s “treasure island.”
In an interview with CNN last month, Tsai said the threat from Beijing is increasing “every day.”
“China’s plan towards the vicinity is very different from before,” she said. “It is more ambitious, more expansionist, and consequently things that were permissible to them then may not be permissible to them now.”
Speaking to CNN in October, Tsai said her citizens had rejected the form. “The Taiwanese people have said clearly that they do not accept ‘One Country, Two Systems’ as the formula that can resolve cross-strait issues,” she said.
Austin Wang, an assistant professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas who specializes in Taiwanese politics, said Beijing’s crackdown in Hong Kong has played an important role in how Taiwan’s younger generation views China.
“In the past, many Taiwanese were OK with ‘One Country, Two Systems’ because China promised that people’s day-to-day life will keep the same. But the situation in Hong Kong indicates the opposite,” he said.
“I think the issue is trust. When Taiwanese people regard China as not trustworthy, all promises or incentives rendered by China are discounted.”
Economic interdependence
But despite rising tensions across the Taiwan Strait in recent years, both Beijing and Taipei cannot provide to completely cut ties.
Last year, mainland China was Taiwan’s largest trading partner and accounted for 26% of the island’s total trade quantity, according to Taiwan’s Bureau of Foreign Trade.
Meanwhile, mainland firms are reliant on Taiwan — particularly the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) — for its super-progressive semiconductor chips as China competes with the US in a technology race.
While the world’s attention has often focused on Beijing’s growing military threat over Taipei, Wang said many Taiwanese people also recognized the island’s economy depends on its relationship with the mainland.
“Taiwanese people indeed realize the importance of cross-strait economic cooperation, and Taiwan’s economy highly depends on China,” he said.
“Nevertheless, Taiwanese people are also careful about how much China can adventure this reliance for political gain.”
“Regional economic integration is an unstoppable global trend. If we do not confront this and join in the time of action, it will only be a matter of time before we are deleted from the competition,” Ma said.
Lin, then a graduate student at National Taiwan University, afterward led the 2014 Sunflower Movement, which successfully forced Ma’s government to fragment the trade deal. The three-week long protest saw student activists occupy Taiwan’s legislative building in the island’s largest displays in decades.
Today, Lin regularly advises President Tsai on meaningful policies. He said Taiwan should reduce its economic reliance on China by building more partnerships with the United States, Japan, and the rest of the world.
“We should be aware that China is a country that often uses economic method to interfere in the politics of other nations,” he said. “We will continue to interact economically with China in the future, but we must also keep our distance to minimize the impact of supply chain restructuring or China’s internal instability to Taiwan.”
CNN’s Will Ripley and Gladys Tsai contributed reporting from Taipei.
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