China’s recruitment of Taiwanese baseball coaches is part of its “united front” tactics, sources said on Sunday.
In a 40-minute video released on Friday, Taiwanese YouTuber “Pa Chiung (八炯)” interviewed Taiwanese rapper Chen Po-yuan (陳伯源), who spoke about China’s “united front” efforts, saying that he had received guidance for producing content that served Beijing’s political agenda from China’s United Front Work Department while working in China.
In the video, an official from the department affiliated with China’s Wuyishan City Government said the department had attracted a B-class Taiwanese baseball coach to work in Nanping City.
Photo: screen grab from China Central Television
“He began working as a coach at a young age and did not finish college, but did not secure a satisfying job in Taiwan,” and accepted the agency’s job offer, the official told Chen over the phone in the video.
China has long devoted its “united front” efforts targeting sports, source said speaking on condition of anonymity.
For example, Taiwanese young baseball players were invited to the Fifth Cross-strait Youth Baseball Culture Festival held in China’s Fujian Province in August, they said, adding that at the festival, they met with China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Song Tao (宋濤), who gave a speech on the “one China” principle and the “1992 consensus” and told the young players that China is their “home.”
Chinese “united front” work authorities also invited Taiwanese baseball coaches to visit China and in one case, a former Chinese Professional Baseball League coach, after returning to Taiwan, hung slogans at baseball matches in local communities saying: “Both sides of the Strait are one family,” the source said.
Some Taiwanese baseball players involved in illegal betting began a new career in China, as they could no longer be accepted by local baseball teams and broader society, they said.
With the focus of “united front” efforts shifting to young people over the past few years, China began inviting youth baseball teams to visit China for so-called “cross-strait exchanges,” they said.
Asked for comment, Taiwan Association of University Professors chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said the involvement of “united front” work agencies in recruiting baseball coaches from Taiwan clearly has a political purpose.
China mainly recruited baseball coaches who had not found a good career in Taiwan rather than players, because the standard is much higher in Taiwan, and good players would either stay in Taiwan, or go to US or Japan.
China’s “united front” efforts are aimed at baseball, because it is Taiwan’s national sport, especially after Taiwan won the championship in the WBSC Premier12 this year, Chen said.
Taiwan’s national identity could be torn apart, with some Taiwanese bribed to function as endorsers saying that China is their “homeland,” or that Taiwan is part of China, he said.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
EARTHQUAKE: Taipei and New Taipei City accused a construction company of ignoring the Circular MRT’s original design, causing sections to shift by up to 92cm The Taipei and New Taipei City governments yesterday said they would seek NT$1.93 billion (US$58.6 million) in compensation from the company responsible for building the Circular MRT Line, following damage sustained during an earthquake in April last year that had shuttered a section for months. BES Engineering Corp, a listed company under Core Pacific Group, was accused of ignoring the original design when constructing the MRT line, resulting in negative shear strength resistance and causing sections of the rail line between Jhonghe (中和) and Banciao (板橋) districts to shift by up to 92cm during the April 3 earthquake. The pot bearings on
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
RSS