Sun, Oct 30, 2022 page3

• Old article tells how Cai Qi swooned over 7-Elevens

  • Staff writer, with CNA
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  A 2012 article has resurfaced in which new Chinese Politburo Standing Committee member Cai Qi (蔡奇) recounted his trip that year to Taiwan, during which he visited his uncle in Kaohsiung, met with local politicians and was captivated by the service at 7-Eleven convenience stores.

  The piece, titled “Taiwan Journal,” was first published on Caixin, a Chinese news Web site, when Cai was a senior official in the Zhejiang provincial government.

  After Cai’s appointment on Sunday to China’s top governing body, the Politburo Standing Committee, the article resurfaced and was shared widely on Chinese social media, but by Monday evening it had disappeared.

  

  Chinese Politburo Standing Committee member Cai Qi attends the National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Saturday last week.

  Photo: Reuters

  In his “Taiwan Journal,” Cai recorded his visit from July 6 to 12, 2012, starting with his Mandarin Airlines flight from Hangzhou to Kaohsiung.

  His official itinerary included a visit to National Sun Yat-sen University and a meeting with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) leaders in Kaohsiung, he wrote.

  His “top priority” was to visit his uncle, who was then in his late 80s and was living in a military dependents’ community in Zuoying District (左營), Cai said.

  The reunion between Cai and his uncle after more than a decade was “exceptionally warm,” and the elderly man “became emotional” when the topic turned to “cross-strait reunification,” the journal said.

  When the time came for them to part, Cai wrote that he was very sad to leave “the old man” with the stooped frame.

  During the trip, he also met with many local political figures, mainly from the KMT, including former vice president Lien Chan (連戰), and then-party vice chairs Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) and John Chiang (蔣孝嚴).

  After a visit to Yilan’s Toucheng Township (頭城), Cai praised then-township mayor Chen Hsiu-nuan (陳秀暖) and commended her for being “elected with the support of over 80 percent of voters.”

  Cai also visited Eslite Book store’s Xinyi branch in Taipei, the National Palace Museum, 1111 Job Bank, the Industrial Technology Research Institute and the Taiwan Stock Exchange, the journal said.

  One of the journal’s most rapt sections was about 7-Eleven stores, which Cai described in detail.

  “The counter is like an electronic server, providing almost every kind of service imaginable,” Cai wrote. “You can pay utility bills or parking fees; buy airplane, train or HSR tickets; buy tickets to the theater; and even renew your driver’s license ... arrange a taxi, and book your Lunar New Year meal.”

  In addition to 7-Elevens, there were also “FamilyMart and OK Mart stores at more than 9,000 locations across Taiwan in total,” he wrote.

  “I wonder when the mainland will have these kinds of convenience stores,” he wrote.

  He also highlighted other aspects of Taiwanese culture, which he appeared to laud as exemplary.

  “Mainland booksellers, take note,” Cai said of the Eslite Bookstore.

  He praised the work of the Christian Mountain Children’s Home in Kaohsiung, saying it was “heartwarming” and operated without government funding.

  Chung Tai Chan Monastery in Nantou County was “cleansing for the soul,” said Cai, who had earned a reputation as a hardliner during his time as Beijing mayor in 2017 and 2018, when he oversaw a large-scale campaign to evict the “low-end population” of migrant workers in the city.

  The journal ended with an appeal to both sides of the Taiwan Strait to recognize their “shared roots” and continue their exchanges, “with a focus on the next generation.”
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