Taiwan's Closer Ties To Mainland Worry Some

A man reads a Taiwanese newspaper in Taipei showing a photo and headline about President Barack Obama's town hall event in Shanghai. (Patrick Lin / AFP/Getty Images)

By Frank James

With so much of the media focus on U.S.-China relations, Taiwan has become something of an afterthought for a lot of us if we think about it at all.

Fortunately, NPR's Frank Langfitt has been thinking about Taiwan, a place he was familiar with, having visited it earlier in the decade.

He alerted us to a recent reporting trip he took to Taiwan which finds itself in an even longer shadow cast by the ever more powerful mainland. In an e-mail, he wrote:

Hey, Frank:

I went to Taiwan in October for the first time in nine years and the result is a piece on All Things Considered today.

When I last visited Taiwan in 2000, I covered the island's election of what was essentially a pro-independence presidential candidate -- Chen Shui-bian -- whose attitude towards China was defiant.

What a difference a bad Taiwanese economy and booming Chinese one makes.

Nine years later, the Taiwan that seemed at times to look down its nose at mainlanders is gone. The new president, Ma Ying-jeou, is trying to build economic ties with China so the island can benefit from the mainland's roaring economy, while still holding on to its de-facto independence.

Quite a balancing act.

Cheers,

Frank

Here's the web report Frank wrote for NPR.org:

Among the issues facing President Obama in China, Taiwan has to be among the easiest. At odds for decades, Taiwan and China are enjoying their warmest relations in years.

But some Taiwanese say China is using its booming economy to absorb the democratic island and U.S. ally -- and that Americans should be concerned.

China has viewed Taiwan as a renegade province since the days of the Chinese civil war. In the mid-1990s, Beijing was so angry with Taiwan for flirting with formal independence; it fired missiles towards the island during an election campaign. Taiwanese voters responded by giving the pro-independence candidate a clear majority.

That was then.

In the past decade, though, Taiwan's economy has struggled and the country has lost much of its swagger. After years of resistance, the government has decided to increase economic ties with China. Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou says he had no choice.

"As mainland China is rapidly becoming the second largest economy in the world, obviously, we cannot avoid doing business with the mainland," Ma said in an interview with American journalists.

Last year, Ma approved direct flights to China for the first time. His government is also working on agreements that would cut tariffs for Taiwanese products and could open the door to more Chinese investment. President Ma insists none of this will affect Taiwan's status as an independent country in all but name.

"There have always been risks in dealing with mainland China, but there have always been opportunities as well," Ma said. "So, my job as president of this country is maximize opportunity and minimize risk."

But Taiwan's opposition politicians are skeptical.

Joseph Wu served as the island's de facto ambassador to the U.S. in 2007 and is a member of Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party, which opposes the new policies.

"If Taiwan cannot separate itself from the Chinese economy, talking about political separation is going to be hard," Wu said.

The United States has protected Taiwan for decades and Wu says Americans have a vested interest in the island's fate.

"We hold the same value of freedom and human rights and democracy with the Americans," Wu said. "Any damage to Taiwan's democracy or that Taiwan is to be sucked into that authoritarian country; the United States should be concerned about that."

Such arguments -- though -- seem to make little impression on Taiwanese business people, most of whom applaud the opening to China and see it as long overdue.

Yancey Hai is CEO of Delta Electronics, which makes everything from cooling fans to digital projectors. Until last year, he had to spend an entire day flying from Taiwan to Shanghai, because -- for political reasons -- the Taiwanese government insisted travelers switch planes in Hong Kong.

Hai says the direct flights are vastly more efficient.

"When I fly to Shanghai, it takes me about 90 minutes," Hai said. "So I can fly to Shanghai in the morning and come back in the evening."

Hai says warmer economic relations are also creating business opportunities.

"One of their biggest appliance companies came to us from China yesterday and in the past, we never talked about business," said Hai. He said the new interest was due to Taiwanese government's removal of psychological and physical barriers.

Some young people support the new policies because they see their future in China -- not Taiwan. Wang Junhong is a finance major at Taiwan's National Politics University. I met him one Friday night as he was dancing to his I-pod while watching his reflection in a giant window.

Taiwan's government has just signed a banking agreement with China and Wang hopes that will make it easier for him to find work at a bank in Shanghai.

"Shanghai is the financial center of China," says Wang, "so I guess there would be much more opportunity to get a good job or get a higher wage."

But where Wang sees opportunity, Anya Liu sees threats.

She's sitting nearby in a white sweat shirt and ponytail, playing guitar Liu worries that the president's opening to China will usher in a flood of mainlanders who will take the best jobs.

"I'm really against this," she says. China's "population is just too big and they're too capable. There's nothing we can do about it."

Liu also thinks Taiwan's leaders are playing into Beijing's hands.

"The Ma government is too close to China," she said. "So -- in the end -- all our political sovereignty will be obliterated."

In addition to students such as Liu, some professors are concerned about China's influence as well. Leticia Fang teaches journalism at National Politics University and says the mainland's economic power is beginning to influence her profession.

She gave the following example:

The Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, came to Taiwan earlier this fall to pray for victims of a typhoon. China -- which calls the Dalai Lama a separatist -- criticized Taiwan for giving him a visa.

Fang said when a Taiwanese TV anchor appeared as a guest on China's state-run television, she also criticized the Dalai Lama.

A few years ago -- Fang said -- that would have never happened.

"Some media people, they are just sucking up," she said.

Fang said her greatest fear is that instead of scrutinizing the outside world, some Taiwanese media would simply become advocates for China.

The Dalai Lama's visit played out in other, revealing ways as well. When he visited the southern port city of Kaohsiung to comfort typhoon victims, the Chinese government took revenge on local businesses. Beijing prohibited government tour groups from spending the night in the city.

C.S. Chung, assistant general manager at Kaohsiung's Hotel Kingdom, said the ban cost him 1,200 room bookings. Chung and other tourism leaders complained to local officials about their embrace of the Dalai Lama and Chung said he made his position clear.

"I really hope the government won't do anything that will infuriate the mainland and cause it to boycott our tourism," he said.

As President Ma tries to forge economic agreements with China, he insists it won't affect Taiwan's autonomy.

"We are very much concerned about our sovereignty and our identity," Ma said. "So, in every agreement we sign with the Chinese mainland, you can read between the lines: there's no political words in that."

But as the Dalai Lama's visit shows, separating politics and economics across the Taiwan Strait is getting harder and harder.