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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》Chinese jobs a ‘united front’ tactic: MAC
The Mainland Affairs Council logo is pictured at its offices in Taipei in an undated photograph. Photo: Taipei Times files
TRICKSTERS: Beijing is targeting young Taiwanese with offers of education and work opportunities in hopes of shaping their minds to identify with China, an official said
By Chen Yu-fu and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer
Beijing’s entreaties for young Taiwanese to work or study in China are part of a coordinated campaign to shape their perception and sympathies to its liking, a Mainland Affairs Council official said yesterday.
The comments came a day after China’s Taiwan Affairs Office （TAO） said Beijing has created thousands of job opportunities for young Taiwanese via state-backed work programs this summer.
The official said on condition of anonymity that any internship or job offered by the Chinese communists would obviously be an exercise in “united front” tactics aimed at sowing division in Taiwan.
Ploys in the service of “united front” work tend to be more talk than substance, and the jobs offered by China are likely to be gone at the end of the year when funding runs out, the official said.
China faces a slew of economic woes from slowing growth, difficulty recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, provincial governments’ declining fiscal health and soaring youth unemployment, the official said.
Unemployment among young Chinese aged 16 to 24 years residing in urban areas surged to a record 20.8 percent last month, while 11.6 million people are to enter the workforce for the first time this summer, the official said, citing official statistics.
Under these adverse economic conditions, offering thousands of jobs to Taiwanese is not likely to be more than an empty boast made for a propagandistic purpose, the official said.
Young Taiwanese should think hard before opting to work in a country where they have no relationship network to fall back on and may face discrimination due to the perception that they are stealing the jobs of locals, the official said.
TAO spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian （朱鳳蓮） earlier this month told a routine news conference that China has prepared a smorgasbord of job programs to hire young Taiwanese in collaboration with local governments and the private sector.
An upcoming job fair in Beijing and the Straits Forum are to create 1,300 and 1,200 jobs for young Taiwanese respectively, while internship programs in Shenzhen and Jiangsu provinces offer opportunities in journalism, healthcare, law, information technology and finance, she said.
Separately, the Chinese-language Liberty Times （the Taipei Times’ sister paper） reported that a prominent Taipei-based group is planning to open a Confucius and traditional Chinese culture-themed summer camp in China’s Shandong Province, citing a confidential source.
The group has instructed its local branches to each recruit at least one young person aged 16 to 35, explicitly stating that the purpose of the activity is to inculcate in young people’s minds their Chinese identity, the source was cited as saying.
The group’s members include many Taiwanese civil and business leaders, and is well funded, the source said, adding that Beijing is likely to use the camp to identify potential assets in Taiwan through which it could interfere with Taiwan’s presidential and legislative elections in January.
The camp offers free room and board, and covers all travel expenses of participants, suggesting funding by Beijing or its affiliates, the source said, based on the group’s registration information.
Taiwan Association of University Professors chairman Chen Li-fu （陳俐甫） said that Chinese President Xi Jinping （習近平） has personally issued the directive for “united front” work agencies to target young Taiwanese.
Luring young Taiwanese to China with promises of educational credentials or employment is one of the last avenues for Beijing to counter pro-independence sentiment in that demographic, as Chinese students are no longer allowed to study in Taiwan, he said.
China’s institutions of higher education allow Taiwanese to apply with their college entrance exam score and study there for free, Chen said.
Beijing utilizes carefully packaged free tours to portray a favorable image of China in hopes of shaping a Chinese national identity among young Taiwanese, he added.
Lo Cheng-chung （羅承宗）, director of the Institute of Financial and Economic Law at the Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, was skeptical about the effectiveness of Beijing’s tactics.
Any goodwill Beijing hopes to achieve through its cultural outreach is more than canceled out by the backlash against the military threat China’s fighter jets and warships pose to Taiwan, he said.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
