In late May, as the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) were expanding legislative power, China conducted military drills around Taiwan again. On the surface, it seems as if the saber-rattling was directed at President William Lai (賴清德) to punish him for his inauguration.
However, it was the first time China mobilized its coast guard in an attempt to expand jurisdiction and law enforcement over the Taiwan Strait, thus “domesticating” the waterway.
China is relentlessly expanding its “gray zone” war tactics.
Several days ago, the China Coast Guard boarded and impounded a Taiwanese fishing boat registered in Penghu County, arresting the crew, even though the boat was within Taiwanese waters northeast of Kinmen County. Despite a swift response by the Coast Guard Administration, it was too late. The Chinese had already whisked the crew away to China.
While this was unfolding, KMT Legislator Chen Hsueh-sheng (陳雪生) proposed an “outlying islands supply regulations” bill, which was passed by the two opposition parties.
Not only would these regulations permit Taiwan’s outlying islands to ignore the restrictions of the Government Procurement Act (政府採購法), state-to-state regulations and national security clauses, it would allow Chinese firms to flood Taiwan with “related” “operational workers” and “machinery,” completely opening the door to China.
This would not only allow outlying islands to legally become Taiwanese territories where China’s “one country, two systems” plan is implemented, but could also become a springboard for large-scale Chinese infiltration of Taiwan.
Kinmen and Lienchiang counties are areas that strongly support the KMT. If they remove restrictions, the two county councils would not hesitate to bring in Chinese firms. China could provide massive support to its own firms by using extremely low pricing or even “free” investment. It could harness these methods to “show its goodwill,” in reality buying people off.
It has long had plans to turn Kinmen and Lienchiang into testing grounds and a showcase for implementation of its “one country, two systems” plans.
China used much the same tactics in Hong Kong, ultimately forcing construction in the territory to be almost entirely dominated by Chinese factories and firms. Hong Kong’s government was a puppet for Beijing, incessantly implementing and buying into Chinese interests, such as a high-speed railway to China, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, bridges from the mainland into the territory and even reservoirs.
These, as well as the Lantau Tomorrow Vision development plan, a massive land reclamation project, and other unnecessary and astronomically expensive white elephants gave all the benefits to Chinese companies while gutting Hong Kong’s pocketbook.
It created a situation in which bad money forced out good money, and suppressed the competitive space for far better, less shady, non-Chinese contracting firms.
Hong Kong ended up with a Chinese financial monopoly, affecting entire industry supply chains, upstream and downstream, including factories, foundries and quarries producing cement, stone, steel, glass and other building materials. The practice was widely expanded, generating endless trouble.
The KMT-TPP bills expanding the legislature’s powers is merely an appetizer to what happened in Hong Kong. The white and blue camps’ bills might allow Chinese materials to flood into Taiwan, which would just be the beginning.
Recalling legislators responsible might be the only way Taiwan can rebuild its defenses.
Hong Tsun-ming is a policy specialist in the Taiwan Statebuilding Party.
Translated by Tim Smith
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